Young Justice: Breather
by Angelus-v1
Summary: After their mission to rescue those captured by The Reach, the team retires to The Hall of Justice in place of a temporary base of operations. During a training skirmish Conner loses his temper and Garfiled is belittled by a fellow team member and the two are in need for some fresh air. (Brotherly/friend bonding.) Now includes other characters after each episode.
1. Chapter 1:After Before the Dawn

1.

Two days had passed since the team's assault on The Lights underwater base. The mission was a success with every captured team member and civilian freed from being experimented on by The Reach, a new threat working with their old enemies. But what was supposed to be a reason for celebrating, was anything but.

They had no home. They had no base. There was only one place for those on the team to go to, the Hall of Justice. What was once a cover for the Justice League in the past as they monitored the Earth's problems from space, now served as a makeshift base and home for those with no other home to go to, specifically Bart, Conner, M'gann, and Garfield.

But even as the team finally could take a breather from one of the most dangerous missions they had ever done, at least one of them wasn't "back" from the mission itself. Which is strange considering she never really was gone in the first place, so to speak.

"Megan? Megan, it's me, Gar. Are you coming out anytime soon?" For the twentieth time that day, the green shape shifter known as Garfield rapped on the locked door where his blood his sister was. It was already four in the afternoon and he had only seen her one time that day and that was for lunch. Since coming back from the mission two days ago, she had locked herself in a room and had only rarely come out. "Megan? Nightwing said he wanted us for training practice in ten minutes."

"Leave her alone," came a voice from down the hall.

"What do you mean?" Garfield asked as he turned to face L'gaan.

"I mean," the aquatic team member said, "she doesn't want to be bothered. So the only thing to do is let her be."

"But I-"

"Kid, listen. She wouldn't talk to me after the mission or after we got back. So if she wants to be left alone, let her be. It's just a waste of time to do otherwise."

"Maybe it's not you she wants to talk to." Garfield said as he crossed his arms.

"Watch it, urchin." L'gaan eyed the youngest member of the team and looked down upon him. "If I were you, I'd watch what I say."

"And if I were you, I'd go back to the zoo." Pushing past L'gaan, Garfield headed down the Hall where Conner and Bart's rooms were when she was stopped by a webbed hand grabbing a shoulder.

"That's a good one from a monkey." He had lowered his voice so anyone past the doors couldn't hear him. "You do know why you're here right?"

"It's cause Kaldur destroyed the mountain."

"No, I mean why you're on the team. It's not because you're, useful, it's cause you're orphan."

"No it's not."

"Yes, it is. You're here because Angelfish took pity on you. The same goes for Nightwing. Conner's only nice to you because he wants to stay on M'gann's good side. They let you stay here because you have no parents and if it weren't for your powers, you would still be wherever it is you're from. You shouldn't even be on the team."

"That's a lie, they like me for me."

"Whatever you've got to tell yourself, but a word of warning, they'll only lie to you if you ask them." With that, the Atlantean walked off from the Hall to the training area.

Garfield just stood there dumbfounded as his so-called teammate sauntered away. He didn't know how long he was there and he didn't notice he was staring at the floor until M'gann emerged from her room and placed a hand on his shoulder, bringing him out of his trance.

"Gar? Are you okay?" M'gann, who was in her black and red combat gear with blue cloak, looked at him with a worried expression.

"Um… I'm… going to train with the others."

"Gar?"

As the green skinned boy headed down the Hall, the door to Conner's room opened and the team's powerhouse stepped out while pulling his fingerless gloves on. A coating of stubble covered his jawline, evident that he hadn't shaved since the day of the rescue mission on the underwater Reach base. One look at Garfield told him something was wrong. He called out his name, but the youth continued on without acknowledging him.

"Um, are you… okay?" he asked M'gann once he saw her.

She looked at him and shook her head gently. "No. I… Conner… I-"

"Hey guys," Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl, said as she poked her head from the hallway's corner. "We got training to get to, hurry up. You don't want to be late, right?" She took off to join the others, leaving the two exes alone.

"Is everything all right?" Conner asked again.

"I'm… I'm sorry." The Martian girl moved past him and down the hallway quickly with her head down.

"And Bart takes that round," Nightwing said as an armored Jaime Reyes landed on his back with a thud.

"And the crowd goes wild," Bart said while making crowd noises. "They're cheering for the impulsive champion who has once again defeated the beetle of blue, the cerulean insect, my azul amigo, Mr.-"

"Periods, please," Batgirl said as she flipped a batarang through her fingers. "Or at least take a breath every few words." The one who took Nightwing's place as Robin smirked as he rested his bo staff across his shoulders from Batgirl's words.

"Alright guys, ease down." Making a few notes on an electric tablet computer, Nightwing then turned to Mal who stood beside him. "All right, your turn to pick the next match."

"The next sparring session will be… Cassie and… Conner," Mal answered. "Powerhouse versus powerhouse."

"Whoo Hoo! Go get 'em girl!" Karen, aka Bumblebee, hollered as the other girls clapped for the blonde heroine.

As Cassie took her position in the middle of the sparring area, Conner was busy looking over at M'gann. Normally she would be sitting with her legs crossed and at full attention, but today she was hunched over and had her head down. A faraway look was on her face as she paid no mind to L'gaan's arm possessively around her shoulders. There were days were he flat out couldn't stand him and others were he just hated him. Had it not have been for hurting M'gann, he knew he would've beaten the Atlantean down. Especially with some of the things he's done on missions and has caught him saying.

"Yo, Conner! Conner!" Snapping out of his thoughts, Conner looked over at Bart, who had taken off his goggles. "Come on, man, you're up. Make her feel the mode."

With a deep breath, the male powerhouse uncrossed his arms and stood up from the wall he leaned upon. Stepping out in front of the others around the sparring circle, he made sure his gloves were on tight and flexed arms back and forth a few times. He kept an eye on M'gann just to the side of him and couldn't get her strange apology out of his head. And then there was the way Garfield was acting.

"Okay," Nightwing said as he stepped around the circle. "New rule for you two, don't bring the house down. Go… less than half strength and remember, you can only use what you have on your person. Begin!"

"I'd be lying if I told you I wasn't waiting for this," Cassie said as he struck a fighting stance. "Been waiting to see which of us is stronger."

Breaking his gaze from M'gann, only after L'gaan caught him and gave him a scowl, Conner turned his attention to the fight at hand. "Whatever."

The two started things off by circling each other in an attempt to figure out how and where to attack the other. Cassie could fly and was more agile Conner, who had her and the brute strength and experience departments. Whichever way it was looked at, it was hard to determine who truly had the edge in this skirmish.

Acting fast, Cassie went for a quick jab to Conner's head but had her attack blocked easily. Conner hooked her arm in his and went for a hip toss but be blonde Amazon countered that by landing on her feet and used flexibility to spin out of his grasp. With his attention still divided, they half Kryptonian went on the defensive with Cassie unsuccessfully trying to land various punches and kicks.

"Is it just me, or does Conner look distracted?" Robin asked Batgirl.

"Can't say, I'm only looking at him," she replied.

"Girl, he does look good with that stubble," Bumblebee commented.

M'gann, who was sitting close by, overheard them and silently agreed. She liked him with the five o'clock shadow he was sporting since the last mission.

"Come on, Superboy, throw something back," Cassie grunted between attacks. "This girl's wondering when you'll get your head in the game."

Moving his gaze from his Martian ex, Conner was now semi-focused on his opponent. Another kick was thrown at chest height but was blocked and countered with a throw. Before she could crash into a wall, she corrected herself in midair and grabbed her lasso from its holster on her waist.

"That's it, come on!" She shouted as she and Conner engaged each other again.

Conner missed a clothesline as the blonde girl fell and slid on her knees, leaving behind a length of her rope. Popping back up, she leapt up and snagged Conner with her legs where she used his forward momentum from a shoulder charge to fling him across the floor. She floated in the air with even more rope behind her as she saw Conner land in a rollout and paused momentarily in front of M'gann and L'gaan.

His eyes locked with the Martian girl's for a moment before Cassie locked in a Full Nelson submission hold on him. Pushing her back, he spun out of her hold and managed to get her into a sitting position and locked in a chicken wing variation.

Wincing from the pain, Cassie fought to get to her feet and attempt to flip Conner over but he was too strong. Her freehand was moving around his leg and it became obvious to Nightwing what she was doing. After a few moments in the hold, Cassie shifted her body around and put a great deal of strength behind hitting Conner's leg behind the knee. His leg buckled and as he fell to one knee, Cassie broke free and pulled on her rope hard. With a thud Conner landed on his back as his female opponent took to the air over him. The rope he thought she was losing was actually being laid out in an elaborate trap that he fell into.

As he got to his feet, he could feel the rope being pulled again and draped over him. Cassie landed behind him and gave one final tug to make his upper body stretch out with one arm going backwards over his shoulder and the other one being forced to touch fingertips with the other.

"And that's the match!" Nightwing yelled.

The girls, sans M'gann, cheered as the guys all groaned. A few bills changed hands and the word "rematch" was tossed around.

"Okay you two," Mal said, "how about we have-"

"Wait just a second," Cassie said. "As long as I have him tied up, let's find out what's really on his mind?"

Nightwing looked over at her and shook his head. "I don't think-"

"Conner," Cassie said as she leaned in close to his ear, "what was the combination to your old room?"

Before he knew it, Conner blurted out his answer. "One, two, three, four, star."

"Cass," Nightwing said.

"In a minute," she told her leader.

"What is this?" Conner grunted. "What are you doing to me?"

"Wonder Woman's not the only one with a lasso of truth." A small smile crossed Cassie's lips as she asked the next question. "What's your favorite color?"

"Rrr red." Conner said.

"What movie has ever made you cry?"

"Rocky Balboa. Now let me go."

"It is an inspirational movie," Mal said.

"What movie made you laugh the most?" Cassie asked.

Conner tried to fight it but wasn't having any luck in doing so. "The… The Exorcist."

"That is just so jacked up," Robin said.

"Let me go!" Conner ordered.

"One more question," Cassie said.

"Cass!" Nightwing sternly yelled.

"Do you like someone on the team?"

"Y… Yes." Conner grunted.

"More than a friend?"

"Yes."

"Is she pretty?"

"Yes."

"What's her name?" Cassie asked with a grin.

Conner let out another grunt. His face contorted as if he were in a struggle with an enemy as beads of sweat formed on his brow. It was no use in not answering her as the mystical rope he was bound in forced the name to flood from his mouth.

"M…M…M'ga…M'gann!" he said louder than he wanted.

The room grew silent as everyone eyed both Conner and M'gann, both of whom stared at each other. L'gaan had a surprised yet angered look on his face. Garfield didn't know what to think as he looked from his blood sister to Conner who was just now being freed from Cassie's golden lasso. Faster than anyone anticipated, the male powerhouse got to his feet and pinned wonder woman's protégé to a wall with his forearm across her chest.

"Don't do that to me again! Ever!" he yelled. The baseline anger in his voice slammed into everyone's chest.

"Conner!" Nightwing yelled. "Stand down!"

"I was just trying to get you to loosen up," Cassie told Conner. "You barely talk to anyone so I-"

"Don't do that to me again. Understand?" Letting go, Conner turned on his heel and stomped out of the training circle. Reaching the spot he occupied earlier, he leaned his back on the wall and crossed his arms over his chest while still keeping an angry look on his face.

"For future reference Cassie, Conner doesn't like to be controlled," Nightwing told her.

With a nod, Cassie gathered up her golden lasso and cleared from the training circle. She looked over at her opponent as he rubbed his temples and knew he was feeling the aftereffects from the magical rope.

"Well, now that we have that out of the way, let's move onto Garfield versus L'gaan." Mel instructed.

"Be back, Angelfish," L'gaan said to M'gann as he gave her a peck on the cheek. He got what he wanted from the gesture, a sneer from Conner as well as Garfield.

"Don't hurt him," she told the Atlantean. It didn't look like he had heard her.

Taking their positions in the training circle's center, both got into a fighting stance and waited for the go-ahead. Once given, L'gaan puffed up his upper body into its larger size while Garfield morphed into a green silverback gorilla. Both charged at each other and locked up in the middle of the training area. Slowly, Garfield began to lose ground and fell to a knee as his opponent continued to push down.

"Come on, hombre," Jamie called, "go King Kong on him!"

With the feeling of Cassie's lasso of truth over, Conner began to take an interest in the skirmish. He watched as Garfield refused to back down and not give up. He had to hand it to him, he was not one to shy away from a fight and liked that he refused to yield.

The lock up was turned into an arm bar with the Atlantean, pinning Garfield to the ground. To Conner, it looked as if the fish faced team member was enjoying his dominance over the youngest member. It wasn't until the youth morphed into a squid when he finally broke out.

"And a nice move by Garfield, the green guru of grappling," Bart said.

A small smile crossed M'gann's lips as she saw her blood brother take advantage in the fight. It disappeared; however, when she saw Nightwing taking notes. Images she had pulled from Kaldur's head flashed through her mind and she had to leave as she thought about the lie he had told the team. She left so quickly in her camouflaged mode that no one noticed as they were all involved in the fight. It was a good back-and-forth fight that ended with Garfield morphing into a bull and charging his opponent before being caught in an Armbar and forced to tap out. It killed him to admit defeat, but a bull's leg was not supposed to bend to the side.

"No shame in losing to someone better than you, urchin. Told you, you shouldn't be here or on the team." L'gaan muttered to Garfield before letting him up.

No one noticed the verbal taunt between the two, no one except for Conner whose super hearing had picked it up. "Hey," the Shield wearing young man said as he stomped over to the two. "What was that?"

"What was what?" L'gaan asked.

"You know what I mean." Looking at Garfield, Conner saw him rubbing his shoulder as he stood back up. "Why did you tell them that?"

"Tell him what?"

"Conner, L'gaan, what's going on?" Nightwing asked from his position beside Mal.

"I don't know," the Atlantean replied, sticking to his guns. "He's just mad from losing to a girl."

Conner stepped right up to L'gaan's face with a sneer and looked down at him. "I heard you. You like picking on kids? You want to pick on Garfield because he's younger than you? Then try picking on me."

"Conner," Nightwing said before being interrupted.

"You want a fight, chum?" L'gaan puffed up into his larger torsoed form again. "You've got one. I've been waiting for this for a long time"

"Sure you have," Conner said as he turned is hands into fists with his knuckles popping from the pressure.

"Whoa, calm down, you two." Mal said as he stood up from his seat.

"Conner, it's okay," Garfield said to the enraged Kryptonian. "Just let it go."

Turning to face Garfield, Conner was about to tell him that it wasn't okay when a finned fist connected with his jaw and sent him backwards several yards into a wall. The other team members got to their feet and gawked at what just happened.

Emerging from the large indent in the wall where he landed, with sheet rock and plaster falling on him, Conner looked up at the fish faced transgressor with a death glare as a growl escaped his mouth through gritted teeth.


	2. Chapter 2

2.

With the door locked, M'gann sat in her new room alone with a framed photo of the original team in her lap. It was a shot of them shortly after Artemis joined the group, making six of them and all. A smile crossed her lips as she ran her finger tips over each image of her friends.

She felt a lump in her throat develop as she stared at the picture. Kaldur had his hands on his hips, standing proudly as a leader should. All this time she thought he had left the team after the death of the woman he loved and became a traitor to them all, which was only cemented when he had "killed" Artemis. Beside him stood Robin who was giving a wide smile as he held one of his birdarangs. In times of danger, one cackle from him would be enough to tell them everything would be okay and he has since become a great leader when he took over that position for the team. She herself stood between him and Conner with her back straight, chest out, and hands clasped behind her back as she tried to strike as heroic of a pose as she could. When she first came to earth she was nervous about making any friends and being accepted, but that proved to be an unnecessary thought as the five strangers from Earth that would make up the team readily and wholeheartedly accept her for who she truly was. Conner had his arms crossed over his chest and a near invisible smirk. She could feel her lips curl slightly as she remembered she was responsible for putting it on him in the first place. He was the first one she gave her heart to. Always strong-willed and stubborn, he may be a hot head, but there was no one else they would rather have depended on to look out for them all.

At the end of the group was Wally who was giving a thumbs up. He was always ready with a joke to alleviate the stress the team was under during missions but was always serious when it came down to it. He, like Conner, had his actions speak louder than his words. At the very end of the original lineup was Artemis, her Earth sister they thought to have been killed in action by their former leader, stood resting her bow across her shoulders. It was a shock to discover she was alive and working undercover with Kaldur this entire time. While at times they she and Wally were at each other's throats or lightly ribbing each other playfully, it was clear that when push came to shove, they would always have each other's backs.

They were closer than friends, they were a family. It was both amazing and sad how much had changed between them in the last five years and she wanted nothing more than to put it back the way it was with all of them together again.

Without warning, a loud boom shook the walls of her room, making her gasp and jump into the air where she hovered and sent out a psychic pulse to find out the cause of the disturbance. What she saw in her mind's eye made her eyes grow wide in fear.

Back in the training area, Conner and L'gaan were going toe to toe. Punches were thrown, kicks were delivered, and vicious comments about one another were yelled. Both delivered hard hits on the other with Conner being the only one who was holding back his full strength. He didn't want to destroy the second place that was his home after all.

"Someone's gotta stop this," Batgirl said.

"Is that something you want to do?" Jamie asked her. "What? No, I will not vaporize them both," he told his scarab.

"Just let them get it out," Nightwing told everyone. "This was a long time coming. And just…try to stay out of their way."

"Are you sure about that?" Mal asked. He looked at Nightwing who was palming a small gray sphere. "What's that?"

"Sleeping gas ball. Just in case."

Lifting Conner over his head, L'gaan slammed him down hard on the concrete floor. Leaving him in a crater, the awkward looking fish humanoid was ready to slam his fists on him when he was hit in the chest by hard left hook from the super powered clone. Falling back, he regained his balance and threw a punch of his own. It was caught single-handedly by Conner, who also caught his left fist as it came from overhead.

Feeling the strength of his adversary, L'gaan grew angry at the fact that he was nowhere near as strong as Conner was and resulted to fighting dirty. Before falling to his knees, the Atlantean wound up one of his toothpick like legs and delivered a kick with all his strength directly to Conner's crotch. It was a move he came to immediately regret as it felt as if his leg was broken.

"Son of… What was that?" Bumblebee asked as L'gaan let out a pain filled yell.

"Um, the words, 'Man of Steel' come to mind," Robin said.

"And so does the word, 'ouch'," Cassie added.

As the Atlantean hobbled on one leg, Conner adjusted his "lower region" with a grunt then rushed his adversary. He leapt up to hook L'gaan's head over his shoulder and fell to the ground, landing on his back and bringing his aquatic foe to the floor head first. Getting back to his feet, Conner grabbed his opponent by the throat and picked him up. He cocked his fist back, preparing to deliver the finishing blow when he saw M'gann appear out of thin air with a worried and surprised expression beside Jamie and Cassie. One look at her made his hate filled glare fade into something of an apologetic look.

Looking back at his teammate, Conner wanted so much to deliver that punch but the thought of what he would do to M'gann made him think otherwise. So instead, he lowered his fist and pushed the Atlantean away. Despite what he had done, he didn't look at him or anyone else. He just swallowed his anger and walked away with a grunt.

"Hey, we're not done yet, you sorry excuse for copy!" L'gaan yelled after him. "You walk away, I win!"

As much as Conner wanted to put him into the ground, he forced himself not to and instead punched a reinforced wall. A thunderous boom erupted from where his fist impacted it and left a large didn't in the metal before he headed to the hanger.

"Well, I guess training's over for today," Nightwing said, not noticing M'gann was glaring at him.

Without another word, the Martian girl made a beeline for her room, leaving behind her teammates and the injured humanoid fish.

"Wolf, stay," Conner told his pet, which it obeyed as he called for Sphere. "Bike, now." The alien object morphed into its super cycle mode and waited for him to climb on.

"Conner! Wait!"

Turning from his spot on Sphere, Conner saw Garfield running towards him. "What do you want, Gar?"

"You didn't have to do that," the green apelike youth said.

"Gar, I don't need a lecture right now."

"No, I mean, you didn't have to stand up for me back there."

"Yeah, well…"

"Can I come with you?"

"For what?"

"Just to get out of here. For a little fresh air maybe?"

Looking the kid over, Conner didn't feel like having company at the moment but the look on his face, somewhere between hopefulness and hurtful, changed his mind. He remembered what their so-called teammate told him and figured there might be more to it than what was said during training. "Fine. I guess we could both use a breather."

Garfield's face lit up at his words and he quickly climbed aboard. He took a seat in front of Conner and held on tight as he took off into the evening sky.

Screams filled the air. Roars, snarls, the sound of running feet were heard where Conner and Garfield sat with a couple of bags of McDonald's food beside them. A woman screamed for help as her ex-husband and friend shouted for her to get in the surrounding trees. It was chaos as they ran from several large creatures who were trying to eat them.

"So, you always come here?" Garfield asked as he took a bite of a cheeseburger.

"Whenever I want to be alone," Conner replied through a mouthful of fries. "Gives me time to think."

"You like being alone, huh?"

"I am alone, Gar. The original team is pretty much gone. The new ones mostly stick to themselves. Superman's who knows where right now."

"And sis is with you know who. Really don't like him."

"You and me both."

A moment passed as they ate a few bites of food. "You ever think of getting back together with-"

"Eat your cheeseburger, Gar. Just…please…eat your cheeseburger." The words came out a little too quickly than Conner intended.

Getting the answer he wanted, Garfield grinned and bit into his burger.

The two sat on a building's ledge, which was across a street from the park. A large screen was erected for a large group of people who were sitting around it on blankets with their families or dates. Large speakers boomed out the audio from the movie on the screen. Because of Conner's super hearing and Garfield's enhanced animal hearing, they could listen to the dialogue and sound effects quite easily from their position.

"So how long have you been coming here? This place is pretty cool," Garfield asked. "Aside from all the pigeon poop that is."

Letting out a sigh after swallowing a bite of his Big Mac, Conner thought back to when he first found the movie playing park event. "About…three, four years, maybe. They were playing Lord of the Rings when I found it." He took sip of his drink. "I used to have a broom stick with a scraper at the end up here but I guess someone moved it last time the roof was cleaned."

"Does anyone else know about this place?"

"Just M'gann from when we, you know."

"Did you two sit up here or go down in the park?"

"Garfield, let's not talk about that."

The youngster nodded, knowing he had stumbled onto a sore subject. "So what else do they show here?"

"Mostly movies for families. I've seen the new Walking Tall, Never Back Down, the original Wolfman, some Abbott and Costello movies, Avatar, and um… Tangled."

"Tangled?" Garfield asked with a chuckle. "You watched Tangled?"

"It was a week after the cave blew up, my movie list with what they were playing was blown up with it, so I didn't know what they were showing. And I wasn't going back after just getting here."

"Okay, whatever you say, super softie. I believe you."

Conner glanced at his young partner but didn't use a scowl. "You know, you're one of the few that doesn't get on my nerves. And none of this leaves the rooftop, understood?"

"Noted. And might I add, I'll be trying harder at my job from now on."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Don't you know anything about little siblings? It's our job to annoy anyone older than us."

Conner cocked an eyebrow at him. "Then by that logic, shouldn't I be annoying you? You're thirteen, I'm barely six."

"Semantics," Garfield said with a grin. "But don't worry, I won't be like Wally or…you know who." He puffed out his cheeks as he placed his hands on the sides of his head and fanned out his fingers.

Conner let out a light laugh at his gesture. "Thank goodness for that."

After some time had passed, the superpowered duo witnessed a boy in the movie reunited with his mother and father. The three hugged each other with large fence between them but a large beast found the group and began to chase them down with a mouth full of sharpened teeth bearing down on them.

"Hey, Gar, you ever tried morphing into one of those?" Conner asked after taking a sip from his drink.

"Something that big? No I haven't tried. I don't even know if I'm capable of doing that."

"Please, if you can morph into an alien bird that's smaller than you, then you should have no problem morphing into something that big." The elder looking of the two looked at the kid and faintly grinned. "Just imagine the look on L'gaan's face if he had to fight you like that."

Garfield couldn't help but let out a laugh. "I can just see him running back into the ocean and hiding under a reef."

After sharing a light laugh, both settled back into watching the movie for a moment until Garfield spoke up again. "Conner? Can ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"Am, am I a burden?"

"A burden?" Conner asked with a confused look. "What makes you think you're a burden?"

"It's just…something L'gaan said."

"When did he tell you that?"

"Shortly before M'gann or you came out of your rooms." Garfield sat with this head down and twiddled his thumbs.

"What else did he say?" Conner asked as he turned to face him better.

"You heard. He said I shouldn't be on the team. That the only reason I'm here is because you all felt sorry for me." Garfield's voice sounded as if it were on the verge of breaking. "He said the only reason you're nice to me is so you could stay on M'gann's good side. And that I… I…"

"Garfield, when have we ever made you feel like that?"

The young boy wiped his eyes as tears began to fall. He tried to hold them back but it was no use. The sight of him trying not to cry and the sound of his sniffling made Conner feel slightly uneasy. Knowing what he should do, but not being used to doing it, he rubbed the back of his neck before looking at the sobbing kid.

"Um, Gar? I don't do this much, but…" Reaching over, Conner draped in arm over Garfield's shoulder and brought him into a one armed hug to which the youth latched onto him as he continued to cry.

"Um, Garfield, you're not a burden. When I was created, I didn't have anyone. Superman turned his back on me and I didn't know what I was supposed to do besides be angry. I felt the same way you do. The team made me see differently. M'gann made me feel differently. Just because we took you in when you had no one to turn to, doesn't make you a burden. We, we did feel sorry for you when your mom died but that's not the reason we brought you here with us. We like you. Robin saw you as a little brother, the same for, for Kaldur and Artemis. You were like a best friend to Wally, and M'gann loves you like a brother. She's even told you. Everyone on the team likes you. And, and you're like a little brother to me too."

After wiping his eyes, Garfield looked up at Conner. "You mean it? You're not just saying that?"

"Gar, when have you ever known me to lie?"

Sitting up, Garfield wiped his face clean. "You don't."

"Look," Conner began. "I don't know what his problem is, but L'gaan doesn't speak for us, most definitely not for me. Next time he tells you something like that again, come get me. I'll put him in his place. But you're not a burden."

"Conner?" Garfield said as he continued to hold onto him. "Thanks for being like a dad."

"A dad, huh?"

Realizing what he said, Garfield sat back up and saw his teammate looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "That…that doesn't leave the rooftop."

Conner stared at the youth for a moment before reaching for his drink. He took a sip than leaned in towards him. "Noted."

It was a word that made Garfield's smile return.

After the movie was over, Conner and Garfield boarded Sphere and took to the air. Neither wanted to stay and watch the second film, Creature from the Black Lagoon. It wasn't until they were nearly home when Sphere picked up on something familiar. Both team members instantly went on alert as the other dimensional vehicle headed for the cause of the signal.

At the edge of the city limits, a group of thugs were loading up a semi-trailer with large crates. Several of them were armed with Apocalyptic technology and were standing guard around those driving forklifts and pallet jacks.

"What do you think is in those?" Garfield asked as he had his eyes become as sharp as an eagle's.

"One word, trouble," Conner said as he steered Sphere to an undisclosed area.

**AN: Just for reference, the move Conner used to bring fish-lame down…was an RKO. Who knew he was fan of WWE's Randy Orton?**


	3. Chapter 3

3.

The super strong hero waited silently by an old billboard with its lights having been shot out some time ago. Questions on why he never opted for a traditional costume once joining the team floated through his head and should have been obvious without having to require an answer. Always donned in a black shirt and dark colored blue cargo pants, Conner was always ready for a stealth mission. Being near invincible also negated the need for armor of any kind. Tonight, as every night ops mission, he blended in perfectly with the darkened environment around him.

The group was almost finished loading the crates and he was getting more impatient the longer he waited. From what he could hear, only three crates were left to be loaded not counting the one the forklift was positioning to be placed in the back of a semi's trailer. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a green sparrow landed on the ground beside him and morphed into Garfield.

"What did you see?" Conner asked while keeping an eye on the thugs.

Taking a knee, Garfield began to draw what he saw in the dirt. "Okay, the truck is here, the billboard and us are here, some bushes, the road, and a large hole where the stuff is…was stored, is here. They placed three light generators around it here, here, and here. They've got four guys standing guard here, here, here, and here with one forklift and two pallet jacks being used to load it all up. So I saw eight men in all, counting the one in the truck's cab. They said it was some sort of weapons drop off point for rearming any sleeper cells. The weapons have been there, from what I could hear, two days at the most."

"So we lucked out and found them rearming themselves. Alright, the best thing for us to do is disable the truck first then take out as many of the guards as we can without alerting them to what we're doing. Those weapons are pretty nasty so be careful."

"Got it. I can take out the cab, but what about the technology?"

"We'll worry about that once the others are taking a nap. We'll come in from the front of the truck since they don't seem to be paying attention to it and most of the area is covered in shadows. Let's go, and stay close."

The two headed out silently with Sphere behind the billboard in case they needed backup. Like he said, Garfield went to work on disabling the semi-truck. He had taken the form of a squirrel and went to gnaw on the various cables and wires. The first was the brakes with the jumper cables being chewed through soon after. He then morphed into a rat and made his way to the cab's window. A hooded thug sat in the driver's seat sleeping with a shotgun lying across his lap. They would never be able to take him out without disturbing the others so he moved on to the next one close by as Conner stuck to the shadows.

Distracting the first of the four guards by drawing his attention, Garfield kept his gun toting target's eyes on his canine form long enough for Conner to sneak up and knock him out with a sleeper hold. He dropped the guard to the ground and smashed the gun then crawled under the vehicle. The second one was quickly dealt with as the powerhouse drug him under the trailer and knocked him out with a punch to the temple. With two of the guards down, the duo made their way to the rear end of the trailer.

Garfield scampered across the top of the trailer disguised as a raccoon while Conner stayed in the large shadow provided by the vehicle. The last two guards were standing in perfect view of each other with their apocalyptic weapons at the ready. One appeared to have an apparatus that would fire red disks to entrap its target. The other carried what appeared to be a red and black assault rifle. The green animal crawled down from the trailer and joined his teammate. Using hand signals, Conner motioned for Garfield to move on his mark. The two moved as one to knock out the last two guards when a candy bar of all things fell to the ground. Conner froze in his spot under the trailer in the hopes the guard wouldn't reach down for it, but he of course did.

Everything happened at once. First there was the guard spotting Conner and alerting the others. Second, there were several bright lights centering on them as the last three who were loading the goods stopped what they were doing and took up weapons. The forklift operator stayed on his machine and reached for a twelve-gage beside his feet while using the crate he was carting for cover and joined the others in opening fire on the two young heroes.

"Gar, move!" Conner ordered as bullets riddled the ground around them.

Garfield morphed into a falcon and flew high into the sky as buckshot streaked past him. Conner dodged several shots from the guard with the red and black rifle before nearly being caught by three red disks. They emitted a red electrical current that almost trapped him but he had managed to get out of the way a split second before they caught him. As he moved to stand after diving out of the way, the man in the forklift charged him and pinned the Kryptonian to the edge of the trailer with one of the forks of the lift. He then aimed his shotgun right at his face and cocked a new shell into the chamber.

"Think that can hurt me?!" Conner yelled. "That won't even leave a scratch!"

"But this will!" the man with the disk launcher shouted before firing three red saucers at him.

The red objects surrounded Conner and trapped him in an electrical field that caused him to nearly black out from the pain. Thinking they had subdued him, the two Apocalyptic weapon carriers approached him as the forklift driver laughed at the sight of the tortured hero. With their focus on their prisoner, they failed to notice a green falcon dive down and morph into a monkey, landing on the back of the disk launcher.

Letting out a shriek, Monkey-Garfield ripped whatever wires he could from the device and dismantled it. As the electrical current died out, he back flipped off then morphed into a rhino and rammed the disk throwing thug, knocking him out before leaping away as a gazelle to dodge the nearby rifleman's shots.

With the field down, Conner shook his head then slammed his fist down on the metal arm pinning him to the trailer and bent it upwards. The driver fired a shot but missed as the super strong young man flipped the forklift over, trapping the thug underneath before delivering a KO punch to his face.

The rifleman was firing almost wildly at the leaping gazelle but none of his shots hit it. He already reloaded twice and was down to his last energy magazine for his Apocalyptic weapon. As he continued to fire, the gazelle leapt into the storage hole and the man developed a large, evil smile. He knew there was no way out of there except for the way in, so he unloaded everything he had on the cornered green animal.

"Serve's you right, boy," the man muttered.

Underneath his feet, a crest of dirt formed from the hole to just behind him. A green gopher emerged from the ground and morphed into a donkey; delivering a strong kick to the man and sending him head first into one of the generators. He lay unconscious as Garfield turned back into his original self and dusted his uniform off before heading back to see if Conner wanted any help.

"Hey, what's going on out here?" the truck's driver shouted as he leapt from the cab with his shotgun at the ready. One look at Conner throwing one of the pallet jack operators threw the side of the trailer told him all he needed to know.

"Really? You're just now waking up?" The super powered young man readied himself to charge at the driver who raised his gun to fire. He never got a shot off as a green kangaroo kicked him hard from behind. He landed at Conner's feet, sound asleep.

"We've got one more," Garfield said. He pointed at a lone fleeing man who had thrown down his shotgun and turned tail.

"I got him." Conner was ready to super jump after him when his younger partner spoke up.

"Throw me."

"What?"

"Throw me." Morphing from his human form to a monkey, Garfield grabbed onto Conner's hand and was soon flying through the air.

The man running from the scene was growing out of breath from running at top speed. He staggered once and almost broke his ankle but didn't stop as the thought of going to jail filled him with fear; he wasn't going back there again. He knew better then to take on anyone from the league, especially if they had an 'S' on their chest like one had. If he knew better, he would have been equally afraid of the shape shifter who was coming up fast behind him.

One moment the fleeing man was breathing hard and trying to reach the city over a mile away, the next, he was blacked out. Garfield had morphed from a monkey to a hippopotamus the moment before reaching the man and landed on top of him. Conner winced when he saw the green hippo literally sit on the thug and waited for him to drag the knocked out criminal back to the semi.

"And that makes the last of them," Garfield said with a bright smile once he morphed back to his usual self. He dropped the thug in front of his teammate and crossed his arms.

"And L'gaan says you're a burden?" Conner asked with a grin.

"Well, maybe I am…to the bad guys."

Letting out a snicker, Conner shook his head and turned back to the left over crates. "Come on, let's gather what's in these crates then call the League to pick them up."

"Right behind ya," Garfield said as he ran up to join him.

After the duo gathered up the remaining crates and restrained the thugs, they waited beside Sphere for the League to arrive. It didn't take long as Green Arrow and Black Canary were already a few miles from the area. Ironically, they were also looking for the same men Conner and Garfield caught.

It was later than they thought by the time they arrived back at The Hall of Justice. Sphere detected the building was empty except for one occupier as those with homes had long since went back to them and Bart went to stay at his grandmother Iris' house. They were careful not to wake the only one who was left, M'gann.

After guiding his sentient vehicle into the hanger, Conner sat for a moment in his seat as Garfield unbuckled his belt. "You did good out there, Gar. You really had them running in circles."

"Thanks. I just wish they wouldn't had caught us when they did."

"No plan goes perfectly. We have to adjust when-" Conner stopped himself when he realized he was starting to sound like a certain nocturnal themed League member. "Just…be open for adjustments on the fly."

After they climbed off Sphere, Garfield turned to Conner before they got any further. "M'gann is gonna kill me for being out this late on a non-mission night. I just hope she's not up."

"Why?" Conner asked as they headed away from Sphere, which turned back into its ball form and rolled away.

"Because, she might act like my sister in front of everyone, but if I do something wrong, get hurt, or stay up too late, she…acts like a mom."

A sly grin formed on Conner's face at the thought of her acting in such a manner. "Just tell her you were with me and I'll explain. Unless she's mad, then you're on your own."

"Gee thanks…dad," Garfield jokingly said as he lightly elbowed him. "And thanks again for that. It was fun getting out for a bit."

"No problem, Gar. Just remember what I said, you're not a burden to any of us. You're part of this team for a reason, and it's not what that bottom feeder said it was. Also, you should probably tell M'gann or Nightwing what he said to you; otherwise he'll think he can get away with it and do it again."

"Hmm, noted." Before they got to the entrance from the hanger to the main building, Garfield turned around and gave Conner a hug, much to his surprise.

"Um…okay. Thanks." Conner gave him a pat on the back but his green teammate didn't let go just yet. "Um, Gar? Garfield?"

"Just felt like doing that."

No sooner had the green boy let go when the large metal sliding door in front of them opened and they saw M'gann standing there; still in her mission uniform with a worried look on her face. "Con…Conner? Garfield? Do you know how late it is? Why didn't you call? Where were you two? What were you doing out all night?"

The duo looked at her then away with guilty expressions. Both rubbed the back of their necks at the same time, which M'gann found a little strange, in a comical way. For some reason, she couldn't be upset at either of them.

"Um..." Conner said.

"Well…" Garfield replied.

"It was his fault." They said at the same time as they pointed to each other. They were surprised they made the same remark and quickly stared at each other.

**AN: Last chap coming up soon. Or the story may follow the rest of the second season with other twists and turns between episodes, haven't decided yet. For those of you who've left feedback, even though I don't really get back to answering you or if you're a guest, thanks a heap. It means a lot.**


	4. Chapter 4

4.

The next morning saw the team gathered around for another training session, only outdoors this time. Repairs had to be performed on the training center and within the building from the impromptu fight from last night between the half Kryptonian and Atlantean. The reinforced steel and concrete walls had to be even further reinforced as well as the training floor; at least being outside afforded them with a wider area to use their various skills, powers, and weapons.

Conner and Bart, aka Impulse, were the first ones up. Conner simply stood in the middle of the training circle with a bored look on his face and arms crossed as Impulse sped around him while tossing out witty remarks about the Kryptonian not being able to catch him. It came to an end when Conner stuck his arm out and Impulse ran directly into it.

Batgirl and Bumblebee were next and had finished with their skirmish with Batgirl successfully immobilizing her smaller opponent for the win. Jamie was having an argument with his scarab about not disintegrating Robin as they would face off against each other later. Robin on the other hand was readying himself by performing a slow kata as he waited with his bo staff jabbing into the air.

Shortly after the match, Cassie had apologized to Conner about what she did to him, explaining how she just wanted to be friends and felt like this was the only way to get him to actually say something. Conner accepted her apology and made one himself, albeit in his usual muttered way for losing his temper like that. M'gann was sitting as far from Nightwing as she could with L'gaan by her side. He made sure Conner knew he was purposely not looking at him and kept his arm possessively around the young Martian woman.

"Very good you two," Nightwing said as he and Mal made their notes on electronic tablets. Once Batgirl and Bumblebee were clear of the combat circle, he called the next competitor. "L'gaan, how's your leg?"

"Fine," the Atlantean angrily said as he glanced over at Conner. "Just fine."

"Well, if you feel like you can train today, you're up. Pick your opponent."

The fish human glared at Conner, who shared a look with M'gann. It only served to make him even angrier. Garfield was next to him and had been talking to the Kryptonian since training began. "I'll take on Beast Boy."

Mal looked questioningly at him. "You sure? You already fought him last night."

"I'm sure. Who knows, he may get lucky this time around." He hurried to the center of the circle then muttered softly, "Copy wants to embarrass me? I'll embarrass his rookie sidekick."

Looking from L'gaan to Conner, Garfield had a small grin no one but the Kryptonian noticed. M'gann saw what was happening and flew over to the two in order to try to get Garfield to refuse, but it was useless as she got there a moment too late.

"Remember what I told you last night, Gar," Conner said.

Garfield turned and nodded as he jogged out to the center of a much larger sparring area.

"You've been real 'chummy' with the poor man's clone," L'gaan told Garfield as of the two took their positions for their skirmish. "You're not trying to get him and my angelfish back together, are you, urchin?"

"Just shut up and fight," Garfield replied.

"Combatants, ready?" Nightwing yelled. Both gave him a confident nod. "Begin!"

On Nightwing's word, both team members charged at each other. L'gaan puffed his torso up and Garfield morphed into a large Brahma bull. The fishy humanoid grabbed the charging green bull by the horns and shoved him hard into the ground. Garfield quickly morphed into a Python and slithered away before turning into a guerrilla again. He backhanded L'gaan while letting out a roar as he landed the shot to his face.

While the two continued their skirmish, M'gann looked up at Conner who was paying very close attention to the match up. His eyes narrowed as they shot back and forth while watching the practice fight. It looked to her like he was paying attention to what Garfield was doing, similar to the way a coach would act when instructing a star player.

"Um, Conner?" she said hesitantly.

"Hm? Yeah?"

"Garfield told me about last night."

"How much did he tell you?" Conner asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He told me you took him to see a movie to help him get out of his little funk. He needed that. Thank you."

"No problem."

The two must have stared at each other for too long as Bart loudly cleared his throat. The two looked away quickly and went back to watching the fight between the Atlantean and the shape shifter. It was then when M'gann caught a glance of Nightwing and turned to Conner.

"Can I speak to you for a moment?" she asked. "In private?"

"About what?"

"Conner, I'm sorry, but, I'll tell you more when it's just the two of us. I can't say anythi-"

A pain filled yell interrupted the exes. When they turned to see who released it, they saw Garfield trapped in a Full Nelson submission hold and unable to get free. His feet kicked the air as he struggled hard to break the hold.

"L'gaan!" M'gann shouted. "Let him go!" She took a step forward but was stopped by Conner. "He's gonna hurt him."

"Garfield can handle it," Conner told her as he held an arm out in front of her. "Trust me."

Refusing to quit when Nightwing asked him, Garfield closed his eyes and concentrated hard. He pictured the animal he and Conner saw in the movie from last night and focused on every detail of it. He felt his spine begin protrude from under his skin and dig into L'gaan's belly. His arms began to strengthen and grow scales as well as claws as he began to grow in size, forcing his aquatic opponent to break the hold.

Everyone stood up from their makeshift seats and stepped back as Garfield became a sixty foot long green spinosaurus. Whipping his massive crocodile like head around, he unleashed a loud roar that made L'gaan yell and backpedal away in fright, especially when he bared his razor sharp teeth.

"Whoa, definitely feeling the mode. Most definitely!" Bart said excitedly.

"Hey, L'gaan," Conner yelled after the Atlantean who was running back to the building, "you run away, you lose!"

Morphing back to his usual ape like self, Garfield had a large smile on his face as everyone including Conner clapped for him. None of his teammates could believe he had morphed into something of that magnitude unless they had seen it with their own two eyes. When he looked back up toward his blood sister, he saw her lead Conner away towards the back entrance of the Hall of Justice.

As the others continued the training, Conner and M'gann found themselves in a conference room with its door locked. Conner leaned against a table with his arms crossed over his chest while M'gann leaned against the door in front of him with her arms crossed to grab her shoulders and had her head down.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked. He hated seeing her like this, looking so unsure of herself. What he wanted to do was hold her but he restrained himself from doing so, as much as he hated it.

"On…on the last mission…when we rescued everyone. I found out something that was supposed to remain a secret." Although she was a Martian and was used to freezing temperatures, M'gann felt oddly cold as she thought about the information she obtained from Kaldur. She wished Conner would just hold her again like he used to and comfort her.

"Was it something in Kaldur's head? Did you tell Nightwing?"

"That's the problem. Nightwing's involved."

Narrowing his eyes and cocking his head to the side slightly, Conner uncrossed his arms and stood up straighter. "What do you mean?"

"Conner," she looked directly into his eyes, "you and I are being played."


	5. Chapter 5: During Ep Cornered

**AN: Cornered was an awesome episode and I had to watch it twice before posting this as I just couldn't not add to my Breather story so here's a continuation of it starring Blue Beetle and Impulse with a little bit of a lead in from last time and gap filler.**

5.

"What do you mean we're being played?" Conner asked as he stood in a private conference room within the Hall of Justice with M'gann.

"What I mean is…" She shifted slightly as he took a step closer to her. "I-"

"_All team members, please meet me in the library immediately._" Nightwing's voice boomed over the intercom system, causing both ex's to look up at the speaker even though there was nothing to see in the first place.

Torn between wanting to hear what she had to say and heading to where they were instructed, Conner waited for the Martian girl to say something, anything, but she suddenly went quiet. At first he thought it had something to do with Nightwing, since she said something about him being involved in something, but she didn't allow him any time to press the issue. Instead, she shook her head and continued to look downward before turning and heading out the door. He couldn't shake the feeling of there being something he was missing, besides the obvious.

After all the members of the team gathered in the library, joined by their leader and four League members, they stood at attention and waited for their orders. L'gaan made it a point to stand next to M'gann once he saw she and Conner step out of a room together. He also didn't want to go anywhere near Garfield due to the exercise earlier. This made Conner, the only one who wasn't standing at attention, roll his eyes in annoyance as he leaned against a bookshelf. Nightwing paced before them as Captain Marvel and Captain Atom stood beside the door. A returning Zatanna sat on one of the chairs as the former Robin began speaking.

"As everyone knows, the Reach, as they are called, has gone public. This has led us to consider several options as to why they are doing this. While we continue to go over why this is and as to why this is happening, we have decided to make this, The Hall, a base of operations instead of a home to those who need it, even though the office rooms could be used as temporary rooms. This was not an easy decision to come by but I was waiting for confirmation from Black Canary as to how to go about this. As such, it has been confirmed that Conner, M'gann, Mal, if you so choose, and Garfield will be living in Blüdhaven. Again, that is if you choose to do so. We'll be heading there shortly but in the meantime, Canary has something to add to all this."

Taking her cue, Black Canary stepped forward and called out several names. "Garfield Logan, Jaime Reyes, Bart Allen, and L'gaan, I need to speak with you four for a few hours on what you went through while in the custody of The Reach. This is mandatory as we have to know what precisely went on during your capture. Time is of the essence so, please, follow me to the Zeta Beams so we may head to Taos and we will be back as soon as possible."

L'gaan was the first to speak up out of the four. "This can't wait? I mean, I just got back and-"

"No, this cannot wait. We need to figure out why you four and certain civilians were captured over others. Besides, patience is something you need to learn. You may not be so lucky to be captured next time."

Scoffing, the Atlantean moved from M'gann's side but not before giving her a quick peck on the cheek, which she didn't respond to, and headed out with Jamie and Bart. Garfield turned to Conner and made a gagging noise as he stuck his finger in his mouth, causing the semi Kryptonian to grin slightly before leaving.

"As for the rest of you," Canary added, "you are all dismissed for the time being and urged to head home," Canary said. "Mal, Karen, if you two would please stay behind with Conner, M'gann, and Nightwing to help with the move. Zatanna and Captain Marvel will be here to offer assistance if needed from The League."

She took a long look at the now homeless group and gave a nod. "We're here if and when you need us. Don't hesitate to ask."

Turning to his teammates, Nightwing gestured for them to follow him. "Conner, Mal, M'gann, if you would please join me in Blüdhaven, I'll show you your new temporary home."

As the three headed to the Zeta tubes with Sphere and Wolf joining them, Conner looked M'gann over. She hadn't said or did anything since coming back from their last mission and was turning those around her away. The fact she had pulled him into a private room and spoke to him was a huge step for her to take in the last few days. It was also the most she had said in the last few days as well.

"M'gann," Conner said as he reached out and grabbed her by the arm. "Are, are you okay?"

Taking a deep breath, she nodded. "Yeah. I'm okay."

"What was it you wanted to tell me earlier? About Nightwing."

She looked down again for a moment, a saddened look crossed her face before she looked back up and flashed Conner a faux smile. "I just wanted to tell you I think we're being played…a little too hard against each other during training exercises."

"M'gann," Before he could press it any further, she walked ahead of him, careful not to get too close to Nightwing, but not making it look as if she was keeping her distance.

Conner sighed and looked down with a contemplative look on his face. He knew there was something wrong. He just needed to get her to tell him so.

Waiting in the yellow hallway was torture, even more so if you were a costume wearing speedster. There was nothing to do besides sit on a butt that had fallen asleep beside a friend who constantly argued with himself, while staring at the bulbous buggy eyes of a human-fish hybrid across the hall. Bart was that person. He was that person who had hit up the vending machine down the hall for food and drinks to maintain his overactive metabolism. His rear end was numb and he slapped his hands against his thighs rapidly until Jaime, in his Blue Beetle armor, put a stop to it. That was when his foot started up to continue the incessant beat.

It wasn't until later when he was called in to talk to Black Canary before Blue Beetle and Lagoon Boy. His session didn't last too long, mostly due to him being videotaped and Canary making a mental note to slow it down upon playback later. Playing down the conversation between him and his blue buddy in private afterwards, he switched back to his normal, speed talking self after another of the civilians went in for their session.

"Well that went well could've been more fun if we were say back in the Hall doing this but with the civvies and all I can see why Black Canary wanted to do this here since they don't know who we are and-"

"Ugh, can you be any more annoying?" L'gaan interrupted. "Learn to use periods and commas instead of talking nonstop for once."

"No can do gotta keep in the mode and live life to its fullest since you only get one go around unless you're a clone than I guess that would be considered a mulligan on the whole game of life which would be great if there were a do over button or a cheat screen to enter the universal code Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A Start then you earn ninety nine lives and-"

"By Poseidon's beard, shut up!"

"Don't tell him to shut up!" Garfield yelled.

"I'll tell whoever I want to shut up and that goes for you too, Monkey Boy."

"Wanna make me, Bottom Feeder?"

"Only if you don't cheat and go Jurassic Park again."

"Oh, so you were scared? Well that beats becoming a giant puffer fish."

"I'll squash you like one of those bugs you turn into."

"How can you when all I have to do is-"

"No I will not vaporize them to get them to quiet down!" Jamie yelled as he stood in the hallway with Black Canary staring behind him from her office. "Because that's not how we do things here!"

"Uh. Who's he talking to?" asked one of the waiting civilians.

The heroes looked at each other and at Black Canary as well, not knowing what to say.

"Uh, he's in showbiz. Vaudeville. Very crash." Bart answered after a moment. "And FYI, LB, that last sentence used one comma and three periods."

"_Santa Maria_! Just leave me alone!" Jamie shouted as he stormed out of the hallway.

Those remaining simply stared at the blue and black armored team member as he rounded the corner until he was out of view. The civilians they rescued looked over the super powered individuals without any clue as what to say. They knew something was wrong with the one called Blue Beetle but were afraid to ask anything should one of the others become angered like he did.

"Well," Black Canary spoke up. "Who's next?"

On the roof of the building Black Canary, the civilians, and the team members were in, Jamie, sans Blue Beetle mask, paced back and forth. He was grateful of the privacy the rooftop provided as it provided him an opportunity to have an argument with his scarab.

"_**What you did was too costly. It could have provided the Canary woman with too much intel on us and that would undoubtedly lead to unwanted consequences for the both of us. I recommend going back in there and terminating her as soon as possible."**_

"Shut up!" Jamie shouted. "I can't do that!"

"_**Yes you can. Simply go back in there, form a pulse cannon on an arm, aim and fire. A blast at that close of range would vaporize her head in .00124 nano-seconds."**_

"I'm not going to kill Black Canary! Do you realize what you're suggesting?"

"_**I am suggesting getting rid of those who potentially stand in our way, starting with her, this Impulse, and the one you call Nightwing. Those three and the Martian woman serve the biggest threat to finding out about us with the Kryptonian clone and magic user being the next logical targets due to his higher durability and her use of what you call magic."**_

"I'm not going to kill them. Or anyone for that matter!"

"_**And what is your reasoning behind that ill-advised logic?"**_

"Because you can't just go around killing people," Jamie grunted between gritted teeth.

"_**What is your logic behind that?"**_

"Because you just can't, okay?"

"_**You got that line from the movie you watched with that bubbly blonde girl that raises your hormones. Don't count on me to say 'Hasta la vista, baby' to our enemies anytime soon."**_

"Even I wouldn't say that!"

"_**But you've thought of it and that's enough to-"**_

"Enough. I don't even know why I even listen to you anymore. I thought maybe you would be more than a mindless killing machine but that's obviously not the case. In fact, I'm placing a rule on whatever parasitic…thing we have."

"_**Symbiotic, not parasitic. A parasitic relationship would inquire that one of us uses the other as a form of sustenance and not contribute to it in a positive way. A symbiotic relationship like the type we share indicates I allow you the use of my weaponry and protection while you offer me the ability to carry out my functions as intended."**_

"And what functions are those?"

"_**To be able to protect and or battle against the whole."**_

"What does that mean?"

"_**It means what I have stated, Jamie Reyes."**_

"Fine, whatever. Just…just…look, this is my body; you're just renting living space on it. I'm in charge, which means what I say goes. You understand me?"

"_**Your logic is-"**_

"Forget logic, you listen to me, you do as I say, or else I will go back in there and tell Black Canary everything. Bart told me what could happen and I will not become a traitor to my friends or those I protect. That's something I will never do."

"_**Never say never Jamie Reyes. You may not want to do that now but what about in the future? The Impulse stated you becoming just that traitor in which you speak of. Has it ever occurred to you that if he does succeed in keeping you from becoming this abomination as you see it, he will cease to exist? What makes you think he will not be the cause of the future of which you fear?"**_

Jaime admittingly hadn't thought of that. He froze in place when his scarab said those words. Bart being the cause of that horrible future never registered on his mind but now it seemed like a possibility. He had heard stories of the team's first year where a clone of Roy Harper, Red Arrow, was a mole for The Light and was responsible for infecting the entire Justice League with a mind altering parasite. Bart being a mole from the future to make sure he and his scarab would become a monstrosity sent a very cold chill up his spine.

"Hey, double B," Bart said in his usual fun voice. "Why didn't you tell me you were up here? Great view. Wonder how far we can see from up here."

"Bart, _hermano_," Jamie said almost too quietly to be heard. "Can you tell me something?"

"Sure, Big Blue, name it."

"You said you don't know how I turned on everyone, so the only question I have is…what actually happens after I turn."

**AN: Oh yeah, I'm continuing this. Gonna try to add new characters after each episode as a challenge to myself and try to keep this in context with the series. And if anyone hasn't seen the recent episode, I tried not to include any spoilers as much as possible. And if ya'll don't mind, could you please give my X-Men: Evolution story a glance. I would like to hear what people think of that one.**

**BTW: Anyone else pick up on the name of that robot? I rolled my eyes when I heard it. And what will happen behind that closed door M'gann and Conner are behind?**


	6. Chapter 6

6.

"Bart, _hermano_," Jamie said almost too quietly to be heard. "Can you tell me something?"

"Sure, Big Blue, name it."

"You said you don't know how I turned on everyone, so the only question I have is…what actually happens after I turn."

The question caught Bart off guard. He was expecting to find Jamie arguing with his scarab or at least staring off into the horizon but he wasn't prepared for discussing a future that may or may not happen. In fact, it was a future he didn't want to talk about period. But there was something in his voice and his eyes that demanded to know what happened after he went evil. It may not have been written on his face, but it was there under his expression all the same.

"Are you sure you want to know about that?" Bart asked as he took his goggles off. He actually spoke in a normal, calm tone. "I mean, it's not exactly wine and roses. It's more like…more like nuclear winter."

"I'm sure, Bart. I need to know what all I do. What happens to everyone on the team? To my _familia?_ To…to…"

"Her?" Bart finished. He let out a sigh and sat against the barrier of the rooftop. "You might want to sit down for this. It's not good."

"_**The Impulse may be lying. It is imperative you destroy him now!"**_

Ignoring his 'inner demon', Jamie took a seat on the edge of the building and nodded for his friend to continue.

"Alright, But understand that there are some things I cannot tell you."

"Like what?" Jamie asked. "I think it would be better if I knew everything you do."

"Imagine if, well, take for example World War Two. What if I had gone back far enough to warn the navy of the attack on Pearl Harbor? Would that have changed the attack from happening? Or would it mean the attack would happen someplace else in America? What if John Kennedy was never assassinated? Or what if the Berlin wall was never built? That may all sound good but every action has a consequence we know nothing of. And I think I may have messed the future up just by being here."

"Okay." Jamie leaned forward on his knees and took a deep breath. "I get it, just give me the basics."

Bart nodded. "Like I said, I don't know what drives you over the edge or why you turned out like that but, here is what I do know about what you did and how it happens…"

"It all started before I was born with the death of Berry Allen, the Flash, at the hands of Neutron. At least that's what we have accredited it to. I was originally supposed to stop Neutron since it's his powers that bring on the majority of destruction throughout the earth. Berry may have stopped him but it cost him his life. Shortly after that, The Reach invade and things get worse. That's where it all becomes fuzzy."

"So it has to be during this missing time I turn-"

Bart held up a hand to stop Jamie's thought. "The Reach are friendly at first. They offer their help to the world through their technology while working with the Justice League. Eventually the League notices members of the public missing. Homeless kids at first then more, as the newspapers put it, 'higher society youngsters'. Among them was your friend, Ty."

"But we rescued them. We changed the past or present. Why were they not freed?"

"Neutron. He was responsible of quite a few deaths, both to the League and the team. If it were not for the deaths they suffered they would have gone on to rescue them. I guess it would be okay to tell you that the ones who died while fighting him and in the custody of The Reach were Robin, Lagoon Boy, Wally, Batgirl, Bumblebee, Green Arrow, Plastic Man, and Hawkman. Later, a more serious attack by The Reach nearly wiped out the remaining Leaguers who were stationed in the Watchtower. Captain Atom, the head of Red Tornado, Zatanna, Aquaman, and Black Canary were all that were left. The other attack on the mountain was led by you and Black Beetle. I don't know what exactly happened but the only ones who were left were Nightwing, Black Canary, and an insane Superboy."

"In…sane?"

"He watched as M'gann died right in his arms, by your hand. There was some sort of connection between them that once severed, he was never the same again. The world tried to fight back but were no match for The Reach and Black Beetle. Black Canary fell first of the remaining three. She and her squadron were caught in an explosion. Nightwing basically aimed Superboy at you two. He came close to killing you but Black Beetle defeated Nightwing and found the Kryptonite in his utility belt. You used it on Superboy and made him suffer until he died as you made Nightwing watch before finishing him off."

Jamie shook his head slowly. "I…I can't…I mean, I can't believe I caused a war like that. All those people that die."

"_**In war, people must die. One side must defeat the other and the losing side is often seen as the one who loses the most life. What stories the Impulse is telling you do not hold merit as they are of a time that has yet to occur and as such, may or may not happen, period."**_

"It was only after my mother was pregnant with me when you came back into the picture." Bart continued. "You were so much bigger, bigger than Black Beetle even and much, much meaner. Nothing could stop you from enslaving the human race. You killed everyone that opposed you and made slaves of those that surrendered. And you did it all with a smile."

"But, we changed all that. Wally and his family stopped Neutron, Flash didn't die."

"Yeah," Bart said as he rubbed the back of his neck, "That, that was my doing."

"What did you do?" Jamie asked.

"_**He changed a past occurrence and in turn changed his history."**_

"I sorta saved my grandfather. Keeping him alive was a side objective while defeating Neutron was the primary one." The future speedster flashed a crooked smile at his friend and gave a nervous laugh.

"So since you saved your grandfather and there were no deaths to the team's ranks, we were able to save the captured kids. So the future has changed. We saved the kids and The Reach was forced to come out in the light before everyone. Shouldn't that make everything-"

"No, not everything." Bart tapped his fingers on the building's edge for a moment before continuing. "The reach may still carry on their plans but at a different time. Just because they haven't done something when they were supposed to, doesn't mean they won't do it at all. There are too many variables to consider. What I told you should have already happened by now. My great Aunt Iris should be hiding somewhere with my unborn dad and aunt at this moment. By this time, the mountain should still be standing with the survivors planning an attack on Black Beetle. Everything is just so incredibly off mode here that my future may not even exist anymore. I'm not even sure if I will exist if we successfully change the here and now. Time, what a concept."

"You're telling me." Looking down at the tarred surface beneath his feet, Jamie didn't know if he wanted to yell out on anger or cry. All he knew was that there was a possibility of him becoming the conqueror of Earth.

"So, my blue bud, _mi amigo_, my incredibly young looking older friend, are you happy now that you've found out about a possible future that we seem to have avoided?"

Letting out a heavy sigh, Jamie shook his head and stood back up. His scarab argued of the possibility of that certain timeline existing was ridiculous. Bart called out his name but was ignored just like the scarab was. Leaving his impulsive friend, Jamie went to the rooftop door that led back into the building while recalling his armor to form around his head.

It didn't take him long to enter the office Black Canary, Captain Marvel, and Nightwing were in and interrupted them.

Once acknowledged by Canary, the fully armored Jamie spoke, "I'm sorry, but I've been hiding something. But I can't…I just can't-"

At that moment, Bart raced into the room and stopped behind his friend. "Uh, Blue, Blue, Blue, what happened to 'keep quiet'?" he looked around at the others and was nervous as all eyes were on him from mentioning what Jamie said earlier, even though those words were meant for his scarab.

"_**Stop, Jamie Reyes, this is a tactical error."**_

"No, time for the truth," Jamie said stubbornly. He turned to face the female League member. "Impulse says that sometime in the future, I betray Earth and bring on a Reach apocalypse. That's not a future I can live with."

He stepped further into the room and stood in the middle of everyone present as he recalled his armor back into the scarab. "Whatever it takes," he said while pointing to the insect-like device on his back, "get this scarab off me."

**AN: Have a feeling it's all gonna hit the fan in 'True Colors' this Saturday and two more characters will be picked from the episode to continue this as well.**


	7. Chapter 7: After Ep True Colors

7.

**AN: This one's about Robin after the latest mission**

Wayne Manor, Tim's room:

It was late in the night, around two in the morning. Within the mansion of Bruce Wayne, two people resided with one resting for the night. For the last four hours the butler to the lord of the manor slept peacefully with the intention of waking up early for another day of performing his duties in his absence. The only other person in the manor was a young teenage boy who was more than used to staying up into the wee hours of the morning, including school nights.

Normally he would be out in the city of Gotham patrolling the rooftops and streets with his mentor and adoptive father, but with him off planet at the moment, that only left him, Nightwing, and Batgirl to keep the criminals at bay. This was one of his assigned off nights Nightwing had given him as he and Batgirl had the city covered and wanted him to reflect on his recent mission with the team.

He had to admit, it was hard staying behind while his two partners were out having fun stopping dangerous criminals from hurting innocent civilians but this was something even Bruce wanted him to do as a way to get things off his chest. It worked considering the life he came from with a father that taught him to be a criminal since the crib and if it wasn't for him being caught by the Batman and opening his eyes as to the type of person he would grow into he would probably be in jail or dead right now.

So, since there was nothing else for him to do before turning in for the night, he pulled open a desk drawer and pulled out a tape recorder.

"This is…Robin. For reasons of protocol involving my identity, I can't reveal my true name, not even to a tape recorder. I'm doing this simply because Batman told me it helps with the so called 'second life' I live. Still don't know how true that is but I guess it's worth a shot since it worked with my real one."

Letting out a sigh, he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on his desk.

"It's been a day since I was elected the leader of Alpha Squad. I was surprised to say the least at being dubbed the leader for the mission and it showed, obviously. I was put in charge of Impulse, Blue Beetle, and our newest member, Arsenal, who is a story onto himself. Superboy accompanied us since he had connections to where or mission was, Smallville. Details of our mission can be found in the Batcomputer as well as the Watchtower database so there's no need in going over everything again. I will; however, go over separate specifics for the time being."

Reaching over to the side of the desk, Tim grabbed a bottled water and took a swig.

"Upon our arrival, Superboy got us set up in a barn on the farm of his…relatives. It was also our fallback spot should we need a place to hide. His…father I guess, went with us to the Luther facility where The Reach had their operatives, one of many places they had operatives actually. I was expecting things to go smoothly. After retrieving samples of treated food, we carried out our mission as instructed."

Pausing the recorder, Tim shook his head. "I'm just going back over what I told them already." He took a deep breath then continued his recording.

"Okay, so, I guess I had doubts as to what I would do on the mission. Sitting in a bathroom stall will do that to you, I guess. I was worried if I was indeed capable of leading another squad again. The first one didn't go so well as we almost got captured and killed with a group of hostages. I guess I was having a case of déjà vu at the time. Blue Beetle was, is a good team member to have as I have worked with him before. Impulse is…impulsive and couldn't keep still."

Tim paused for a moment with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Side note, Impulse ate one of the treated vegetables from the Luther building. I'll have to keep a close eye on him for any side effects should any develop."

He took another swig of water and ran a hand through his hair.

"I trusted those two, I've worked with those two. Arsenal was the wild card. I knew what he's capable of and at the same time I don't know a thing about him. Details about him can be found in the usual places so I'll move on. Leaving the stalls after the facility closed, I pushed all thoughts I had to the back of my mind and did what I was trusted to do, lead my squad on a successful mission and bring them back safely to the barn. And then that plan literally blew up in my face."

He pinched the bridge of his nose then removed his feet from his desk so he could lean on his elbows.

"Look, I gave specific instructions for them to follow but not all of them carried them out. Arsenal has a grudge against Lex that he can't be blamed for and nearly cost us the mission and our lives. All he had to do was stay put as I obtained a sample of what The Reach was putting in the water for the vegitables but he had to plant his explosives around the facility and eliminate our stealth mission. As if that wasn't enough, we were attacked by Black Beetle and all my doubts came rushing back. We were caught and I thought we weren't gonna make it out."

Leaning back in his chair, Tim let out a forceful breath of frustration.

"When I lose my confidence, even for a moment, I imagine the worst case scenario. I could see myself putting up a losing fight and watching my squad mates die before me. I had to pull it together but with our attacks not phasing him in the slightest, I thought we were all done for so I knew we had no other choice but to retreat. Unfortunately, Black Beetle was one step ahead of us and cut off our escape route. My confidence we would all make it back was hanging by a thread at this point. If it wasn't for our newest, friend, we may not have made it back. The Martian Beetle is still being questioned by the others at this time."

Looking at the clock, he saw it was getting close to his usual bed time, he did have school in the morning after all.

"I still have so many questions that need answers. Are the reach working with The Light and if so, to what purpose? Could this additive be something to unlock a person's dormant Metagene? Could it be a form of mind control like Nightwing once told me about? And what of the side effects that come from ingesting said additive? I will definitely keep an eye on Impulse for the time being."

Rising from his chair, Tim headed to his bed and moved a small picture on the wall to the side where a button was revealed. Once pressed, a tube slid out of the wall from behind a hidden panel.

"One more thing, I couldn't help but notice something happening between four members of the team, specifically Nightwing, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Lagoon Boy. Miss Martian has been distant as of late, completely different from how she normally acts and refuses to use some of her powers. Lagoon Boy has been complaining about her not talking to him or accepting his phone calls. Since they are in a relationship, this is strange. What adds to this is Conner's unknown whereabouts. He disappeared shortly after the Hall was destroyed and was not seen until late the next day. This happened several more times and each time he goes missing, Miss Martian is gone as well. This may be due to them attempting on working out what happened between them but as the others have put it, there may be something going on behind closed doors since they were together for the greater part of the team's existence and would like to keep it quiet, especially from you know who. This is like Nightwing and Batgirl when they're on patrol. They don't think I notice what they're doing behind my back or when they send me off to investigate alone, but I know. Superboy and Miss Martian relationship wise, I'm not going to touch that one as I don't have all the facts in as of yet. But if they are sneaking around, my money would be on Superboy when it all hits the fan."

Pausing once more, Tim stared out the window and saw the Batsignal light up the sky, knowing fully Nightwing and Batgirl would respond to it.

"I'll be out patrolling tomorrow night unless another mission comes up. I also would like to state how I…I can't wait until Batman returns to Earth. We need you here with us but we're holding our own. We can because you taught us everything we need to know. This is Robin…signing off."

With his recording complete, Tim removed the small tape from the device and dropped it into the tube in the wall. It would take it to the Batcave where it would wait for Bruce when he got back. In the meantime, he turned off his table lamp, climbed into bed, and went to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8: After Ep The Fix

8.

**Happy Harbor, Mount Justice - Conner:**

The sky was clear without a cloud in sight as the bright sun warmed the earth. But as peaceful as it looked from afar, the city of Happy Harbor echoed with the sound of thunder. Harsh gluttonal yells filled the area around the place where a mountain once stood. People at the base of where it once resided looked curiously up at the sky, thinking a sudden storm was moving in, they checked their tablet computers or smartphones for the weather but all showed it was going to be another gorgeous day. Still, none could explain the sound of rumbling thunder nearby.

Alone in the middle of the a crater where the once great Mount Justice stood, an individual moved with purpose from boulder to boulder, smashing them to bits as his fists collided with the stone structures. Walls of metal were standing at bent angles but were soon torn down as the young man ripped them apart like tissue. If it were possible, the relics of the mountain were being further turned into ruins with little more than dust and sand left behind.

Sitting atop a destroyed barrier wall, a large white wolf stared at its master as he continued to flatten the area around him. The animal whimpered and let out a bark or a howl from time to time as a cell phone rang but wasn't heard above the yelling and slamming of fists. Beside the canine, a large metallic sphere beeped nervously as it carefully moved around the animal. Its red sensors were situated on the young man as well as he let out another yell before turning a boulder into gravel.

"What was he thinking telling me that?" Conner yelled as he smashed yet another large boulder. "Accusing me of hating M'gann and leaving her to be taken from us? I didn't accuse him of being responsible for her capture!"

Reaching into the ground, he pulled out a thirty foot piece of wrought iron and bent it in half easily. He then began to punch it repeatedly, eventually ripping a hole through it with his left fist.

"If he only had half an idea of how I feel about her." He took the destroyed metal and slammed it onto another rock.

For the past half hour, the semi Kryptonian had been taking out his frustrations on what was left of the first home he ever knew. What was once a beautiful forest covered mountain with a sandy beach at its base, was now a crater full of grey rock and leftover girders. The occasional computer component was discovered but they too were smashed into nothing once the black haired man got a hold of them.

"Want me to go find her? Fine! Tell me where she's at and I will!" Another boulder was smashed from a two handed overhead slam. "No broken leg would keep me from going after her if I knew where she was! Set the bone, slap a splint over it, and trudge on!"

As if to make a point about mentioning a broken leg, Conner wound up and kicked a knee high rock, turning it into gravel as it shattered to pieces. "Fishboy needs to shut his mouth. He doesn't care for her like…RRAAAGHH!"

Grabbing his head, Conner violently mowed his hands through his hair and pounded his right fist into what was once a wall to one of the rooms within the cave. After his fist made a hole in it, he realized it was a wall separating Wally's trophy room with Garfield's when the young boy stayed there with them. Several more shots later and he had created a large enough hole for him to see in through.

Placing his hands on the top of the makeshift entrance way, Conner stopped attacking things for the first time since he arrived back in the city. His breathing was labored from the constant movement and sweat poured off his brow.

"_M'gann, please, if you can hear me, know I…we're coming for you. Just hang on."_ It was the same mental message he had repeated ever since he arrived in the Chicago junkyard and learned of her capture earlier in the day. There was just nothing to do until they figured out where she was. For now he had to trust Artemis would keep her safe.

Reaching up to wipe the perspiration off, he saw the condition of his fingerless gloves and ripped what was left of them off. After flexing his fists to shake off the slight stinging he felt in them, he looked inside the small cave-like hole he created. There was nothing special in there besides a cooler with a medical cross on it, a stand where Doctor Fate's helmet once rested, and various other knickknacks from missions past.

"I thought they got everything," he whispered as he pried more of the wall away.

Next to the trophy room was Garfield's room. The adolescent had moved all of his possessions within it and now said possessions were buried under tons of rock. A howl from Wolf caught Conner's attention as he looked back at the concerned animal he had adopted from a mission five years ago.

"Fine, you can dig," the half human muttered as he went back to his previous way of taking his anger and frustrations out.

It was near dusk when Conner finally stopped beating on whatever solid structure he could find and called it quits. He was still angry but not like he was when he first got there. Thinking back to when M'gann was taken prisoner and Nightwing confessed to him and L'gaan about his plan, made Conner think further back to when he visited the Martian girl at her uncle's apartment in Chicago. He had only meant to see how she was doing but decided to push things between them and got her to confess what she saw in Kaldur's mind during the big rescue mission. It was a wonder why Nightwing never questioned how calm he was when the undercover mission was explained.

Everything about what was really going on was revealed to him. It was a shock, knowing the one person they all trusted as a teammate and leader was on the same level as a mole. In fact, if it wasn't for M'gann stopping him when she did, Conner might have not been able to stop himself from confronting Nightwing that very night. He gave her the benefit of the doubt and just let it go, letting her explain that his usual way of dealing with things of that nature may not be the right course of action at that time. It was better if Nightwing admitted to what he was doing. That way he could face the guilt of what he did, if he had a conscience that is.

Looking back, it was nice to talk with her and not have an argument about her powers again. It was almost like old times when it was just the two of them with no one to disturb them only the night ended with them on the couch with her crying herself to sleep on his shoulder as he stayed up all night contemplating on what he should do and how he shouldn't be on that couch with her with an arm around her shoulders, no matter how much he wanted to be there.

Leaning back on the rubble under him with his hands under his head, he thought back about how it took everything he had to not give in to what he wanted and not kiss her right then and there. If only he would have known that may have been one of the last times he would see her, maybe he would have said something or did something different. It was then when a bark and several beeps came from behind him, interrupting his thoughts.

"What?" he answered flatly.

His two pets came up to his side. Sphere crawled up to his right in her pill bug mode before turning into her usual spherical shape. Wolf sat on his left and dropped a small square object on his chest followed by a light bark.

Letting out a growl, Conner grabbed the item and brought it up above his head. It was a small picture frame with its glass covered in black soot and its copperish boarder tarnished with one side broken. Sitting up, he used his shirt to clean off the cracked glass and uncovered a picture of himself with an annoyed face as a small monkey on his shoulder tugged at his hair as it reached for a piece of fruit hanging from an overhead tree branch. Next to him was M'gann standing with her arm around Garfield's neck as they laughed at the distracted Superboy with Garfield's mother pulling the branch just low enough to entice the small primate.

A desolate look crossed his face as he remembered the day they took that picture, which was several weeks before Garfield's mother was killed. "You just had to find this, didn't you?" he asked Wolf who just stared at him.

He brought up a knee and rested his chin on his hand before sweeping a hand through his hair. "It's all my fault."

He looked up at Wolf who let out a curious whimper.

"It's my fault she didn't stop abu…using her powers like that. I should have stayed and tried to show her what she's been doing instead of getting angry and, and leaving her like that."

He looked out over the ocean and could just imagine M'gann sitting alone in a cell inside one of Black Manta's subs. The only reason for her being in that situation would be to fix Kaldur. Then it hit him, what if the same thing that happened to Tula, happened to M'gann. If she can't repair what she did to his mind, or if she fixed him completely, there wouldn't be any further use for her and she could wind up another casualty. Artemis could be in the same figurative boat as her and if they figured out what Kaldur was doing…

He slammed a fist down on the ground hard enough to shake the loose rocks and debris as warm tears made their way down his face. That was something he refused to think about, M'gann's potential fate, as it hurt him in a way he hadn't felt before. He looked up at Wolf as the animal licked his face and nuzzled his head against Conner's while Sphere beeped quietly on his other side. His mind was made up. They could always make another Superboy or Project Kr, but there was no way they could create another M'gann, Artemis, or Kaldur.

"I'm coming for you M'gann," he said through gritted teeth. "I'll never abandon you like…he accused me of. Even if I have to do it by myself, I'll get you out of there. No matter what."

**Black Manta's sub, Atlantic Ocean - M'gann:**

Time had lost all meaning for the Martian girl as she sat alone in a small cell with only the humming of the ship's engines to keep her company. The bed she sat on was more like a cot, similar to the ones at the Blüdhaven base Nightwing had set up for those without a home. Across from her was a metallic sink and a half wall that allowed for some privacy where the toilet was.

Since partially repairing Kaldur's mind, she was dismissed to her cell and left there as Black Manta spoke to his son in private. The disguised Artemis was the only one to have stopped by but couldn't say anything more than 'eat up' as she slid a tray of food into the cell, which she refused to eat. That was some time ago.

Every now and then, she would send out a mental message while working on Kaldur's mind in the hopes someone would respond but those hopes were met with disappointment as they were too far away from shore or even Atlantis for anyone to pick up on them. She let out a sigh as she hugged her knees closer to her chest when the sound of footsteps reverberated from down the hall. Judging from the tapping of the boots and the way they sounded, she could tell it was Tigress, the disguised Artemis. Like before, she carried a tray of food and stopped before her cell. But unlike last time, she was alone.

"_M'gann, eat up this time, please."_ Artemis thought as she deactivated the telepathy blocker on the Martian's collar with a special remote that wouldn't alert Black Manta or his subordinates. "No fork, no knife, no tricks, prisoner. Just a plastic spoon to eat with. And it better be there when you're done."

"_What's the point?"_ M'gann answered. "_Black manta will execute me regardless if I can repair Kaldur's mind or not."_

"_But don't you think it would be better if you kept your strength up? I saved you from being killed on sight by drugging Psymon and getting Manta to think you're the only one who can help him. If I can get word to the team-"_

"_But it may be too late. You heard what he said about Deathstroke. If he gets word something's wrong, that's it."_

"_Just please, pull yourself together, M'gann. You can go into Kaldur's mind and explain what's happening out here, keep our cover up."_

M'gann sat still and starred at the ground. _"I'll…I'll try. But, I really don't know how long it will take to repair his mind."_

"**Tigress,"** Black Manta said over the woman's ear mounted communicator. **"Report to the bridge. I have a mission for you and Deathstroke."**

"Roger that, Tigress out." Looking her friend over, Tigress slid a hand in a pocket and palmed the remote to turn M'gann's collar back on. "_Gotta go. But please, stop blaming yourself, you didn't know what we were doing and that fault can only be placed on Nightwing, Kaldur, Wally, and myself. And keep your strength up. No telling when the team will attempt to rescue you."_

Before she pressed the button to reactivate the collar, Tigress had to ask one more question. "_Tell me one more thing, M'gann."_

"_What?"_

"_How's Wally?"_

The green shaded girl let out a sigh and gave a half smile. "_He's holding up. He misses you."_

"_So do I."_ Tigress thought after a moment. "_If you see him before me, tell him I love him and I'm okay."_

"_Okay."_

As her friend, turned deep cover agent, turned her collar back on and went about her business, M'gann glanced at her food tray. It was a simple meal of mashed potatoes and a sliver of meat with a plastic cup of orange juice. Her stomach growled from being empty and it didn't take long for her to give in to her hunger. As she ate, she couldn't keep from hoping the team would get her out after she fixed the damage done to Kaldur. She also hoped and knew one team member would be there to get her out and said team member would most likely take everyone down he came across. She just hoped Conner would at least wait for backup and not come for her alone.

**Blüdhaven – Conner**:

It was late when the Krypto-human hybrid arrived at the new hideout with Wolf and Sphere. After gaining relative quiet entrance to the warehouse, Sphere took her position in a corner of the building. Wolf curled up on a large pile of blankets across from the sentient object as Conner journeyed over to his cot.

Kicking off his boots and taking his shirt off, he sat on his bed and leaned against the wall behind him, letting out a long breath as he did so. Mal and Garfield were still asleep with the youth curled up in his blood sister's bed. It was then he remembered the picture Wolf brought to him earlier.

He pulled the photo out of his pocket and gave it one more look over, remembering that day vividly before getting up and setting it on the table beside where the green youth slept. From the looks of it, Garfield cried himself to sleep, reflecting the hurt and pain Conner felt when he lashed out at the crater that was Mount Justice.

Remembering his cell, he pulled it out of one of his cargo pockets and flipped it open. Sure enough, he had several missed calls and texts, all from Garfield wanting to know where he was. He regretted not paying attention to the device, almost as much as he regretted not being there for him.

"Sorry, Gar. I screwed up again. I'll make it up to you somehow. I just needed to let it out in my own way today."

Looking over the warehouse, Conner developed a stern expression then went back to his cot with a single thought on his mind. As he lay on his back with his hands under his head, he stared angrily at the ceiling and muttered, "Whatever it takes."


	9. Chapter 9: Coincides with The Runaways

9.

**Blüdhaven – Warehouse fallback base**

Within the warehouse the homeless members of the team occupied, Nightwing sat at a table with a laptop and a computer tablet before him. Each one had information regarding The Reach, The Light, and the newest addition to the team, the Green Beetle of Mars. Every detail was meticulously gone over time and time again, something Batman taught him to do in an effort to have his ducks all lined up to make shooting them easier. Across from him was Mal, the team's mission coordinator when it came to mission specs and electronics.

Since the destruction of The Hall of Justice, he has had to admit Mal impressed him with the way he stepped up when they needed someone to the most despite being vastly unmatched in virtually every area of fighting skill. Since then, the young black man had been quiet more than usual as he really wasn't one for casual chit chat to begin with.

"So anything else we need to go over?" Nightwing asked. He saved his notes to an encrypted jump drive and slipped them into a pouch on his belt.

"Not since the last time you asked me, no." Mal looked up at the team leader as he popped his back in his chair. "Hey, Wing, has it ever occurred to you that you may be overlooking something?"

"Like what?"

"Well, for one, Jaime's been acting a little different lately, ever since he got that scarab of his under control."

"You mean like the fact he's not arguing with himself?"

"Not that. It's something smaller, more subtle. Like when he was in combat training the other day. He nearly hurt Bart and didn't look to be holding back like usual."

The masked hero leaned back in his chair. "Actually, I find it rather good he's using more of his scarab's abilities. It seemed he was always afraid of attacking during training or in the field and since the Green Beetle helped him gain control over it, I'm pleased he's feeling more comfortable with his weaponry and skills."

"I don't know. I still don't feel as if everything's right with him, like I said, it's subtle and barely noticeable." Closing his laptop, the larger young man watched Nightwing develop a pensive look on his face as he read his wrist mounted hollow-computer. "What is it?"

"Just checking to see if the Amazo parts are still untouched. The last thing we need is for that android to be up and running again."

"I hear that. Where did you transport his head to any-"

"Wait a second, oh great."

Getting up from his side of the table, Mal quickly went to join Nightwing as his eyes narrowed. "What? What's wrong?"

"It seems four of the prisoners we freed from the Reach base have chosen to free themselves from Taos. Zeta Tubes are down for some reason. No one's in the immediate area to respond, ah, Jaime, he's close enough."

"You need me to contact Conner, Bart, and Gar, tell them to assist Blue?"

"Negative. Conner took Gar somewhere to deal with M'gann being captured and Bart may not be the best option for this. Maybe…"

As Nightwing contacted Jaime, Mal brought his laptop up and opened a file. Typing in a password, he clicked on a file with several schematics and waited for the team leader to finish. Every detail in the plans was gone over until he was certain nothing was overlooked. Where Nightwing would go over mission parameters, Mal would go over mission specs and coordinates.

"Hey, Wing," Mal said after the leader finished issuing Jaime his orders. "I've been wanting your opinion on something."

"Alright, shoot."

"I've been working on this for a few weeks, since the attack on the Hall. With so many of the League off world and the rest running around to make up for the loss of man power and our own being injured, captured, or covering for the missing Leaguers, I thought maybe it's time I finally show you this."

Turning his laptop around, Mal watched Nightwing closely as the young man looked over a schematic on the screen. "What exactly am I looking at?"

"With what happened in the Hall, with Karen, Zatanna, and Captain Marvel knocked out and Miss Martian holding back, as well as Conner involved in a losing battle, I was thinking, maybe it's time I stepped up my game by wearing the Guardian Armor."

Nightwing let out a sigh. "Mal, I can understand where you're coming from but-"

"Now before you say anything more, if it's because I don't have powers of my own, I would like to point out neither do you or did Artemis, or Batgirl, or Robin. Raquel wouldn't have any powers if it weren't for her inertia belt either. The armor would be the same thing for me. I've been training with Black Canary and if it wasn't for her self-defense lessons or my background in boxing, I wouldn't have stood a chance."

"Mal, it's not just that, are you aware of what taking a more active role on the team means? It's not all throwing punches and beating the bad guys. There's a real possibility of someone not making it back. I don't want to have another incident like Tula's or risk you getting captured."

"I know, Nightwing. But here's the thing, I can augment the armor to enhance my strength and protect me from being hurt. I may not have a Meta gene or advanced training like the rest of you but my strength is my mind. I can make it work and since I'm here manning the computers all day, I can also be a reserve in case something else should pop up."

Crossing his arms, Nightwing sat back in his seat and stared at his Mission coordinator. "Like I said, I can understand what you're saying, but I'm afraid you may want to do…this…for other reasons besides what you're saying."

"Meaning?" Mal asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Meaning, I don't think you want to do this for all the right reasons."

"What do you mean by that?" There was an ounce of being offended in Mal's voice as well as the look on his face. His eyes narrowed and nostrils flared slightly as his muscles tensed up. It looked as if he were about to get up and stand over Nightwing at any moment.

"Calm down a minute," Nightwing said as he rose his arms to signal him to settle down. "I can agree with you on a number of reasons but, well, do you know why Bab…Barbra became Batgirl?"

"What does that have to do this?"

"Barbra became Batgirl because her father didn't want her to join the police department. It was her dream to become an officer and bring criminals to justice. Since she couldn't, she made herself a costume based on Batman's and became a vigilante because she was inspired by him and myself when I was Robin. She knew there were some things and people the police couldn't touch. Since then, she's rally made a dent in the amount of crimes around Gotham."

Mal settled back down in his seat.

"Artemis comes from a criminal family. She wanted to break that cycle and has done good since picking up her bow. Wally wanted to be like his uncle and tried to re-create how he gained his powers. He'll never be as fast as him, but that didn't stop Wally from doing his best to bring down criminals whenever he could. M'gann wanted to be like her uncle and showed everyone a White Martian is just as capable of doing what a Green Martian can do. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"My reason is just as good as theirs." Mal said sternly.

"So this has nothing to with Karen?" The near invisible twitch in Mal's face told the masked man he hit the nail on the head. "Mal, if I let you do this then you've got to have a better reason than getting Karen to notice you again. Look what's happening to L'gaan. He's so obsessed with showing M'gann what he can do that he got himself captured because he's jealous of Conner. In fact, him being sidelined may be something that's good for everyone. Cassie, she has so much potential to become one of the greats, but she's easily distracted and…fangirls over what Wonder Woman does as well as the veterans of the team. That's why I keep from putting certain people together, no distractions or hard feelings. You imagine if I put M'gann, Conner, and L'gaan on the same team? Total anarchy with them having the potential of fighting each other instead of the enemy. You've just got to have a better reason than attracting a girl."

Mal sat back and thought over everything Nightwing told him. What he said about donning Guardian's armor was true, he did want a more active role on the team but he did leave out the part about Karen. He missed the days where they would go on dates before she got her powers and joined the team. In fact, he had a scholarship to Stanford lined up and only stayed at Ivy Town because of her. It was safe to say he would follow her wherever she went.

"Look," Nightwing said, "I wouldn't mind having you becoming a full member of the team. Truth be told, we need all the help we can get. But we also need someone to maintain mission specs here in case something unforeseen happens. You're doing a great job monitoring us while in the field and keeping us alive, so don't think you don't offer anything doing what you're doing."

"So if I can show my skills and that I can handle myself in a fight-"

"Then I will be the first one to vouch for you as a field team member. In fact, you could be good as a field leader with the way you coordinate missions. But right now, I need to see how Blue's progress is going."

Standing up from the table, Nightwing gave Mal a pat on the shoulder before pulling up his hollow computer again. The dark skinned young man turned his laptop back around and stared at the schematics for the updated Guardian armor. He knew what Nightwing was saying but still wanted to be a bigger part of the team. The idea of Nightwing potentially having him as a field leader made him grin slightly. Already his mind was being looked at as something other than a mission operative, giving him hope that maybe one day, he would be fully capable of joining the others on the front lines. With a sigh, he closed out the file and folded the screen down.

"Someday," he whispered. "Someday."

**Taos Pueblo – Some Time Later**

It was around dusk by the time Blue Beetle finished with his mission, which had an unforeseen mechanical setback by the name of Red Volcano along with the disappearance of the four runaways he was charged to bring back to Star Labs. The interference of the local police wasn't much help as they only served as a distraction from the task at hand. For the last several minutes, the blue and black armored member of the team spoke with Green Beetle about the events of the day, all the while ignoring the all too familiar voice in his head. Knowing he had failed his mission and would have to face their leader eventually, the smaller of the beetles wasn't all too pleased with himself.

"I was still hot from battle and over played my hand," Blue Beetle stated as he leaned on the stone railing of a pueblo. "Really, I should have summoned you to pick them up the moment I made contact."

**But you didn't, at least there's that. Ty is still safe and so are the others. You failed.**

"You were attempting to win their trust and increase their dependence," Green Beetle told him. "It was a sensible tactic. We will find them again in time."

"Of course the timing of the robot's attack didn't help."

**Yeah, that was weird. If only Red Volcano could have kept the attack up. I nearly took control over you. I…are you even listening to me!**

"On the contrary, it helped establish your profile as a true hero."

"Which is easily as important," a deep, thunderous voice said behind the two Beetles, making them turn around to see their real leader, Black Beetle, "as Green rebooted your scarab to control the meat inside."

**I swear, when I get out of here, I will make sure the team takes you down. I won't allow you to enslave the earth. You may have fooled us all, but I will get word to the others, somehow, someway.**

"So you must control the natives of this world, enlarging The Reach's hold in the galaxy." Green Beetle told his smaller partner.

**No, this can't be real. It's not right. Let me free! Give me my body back!**

"Don't worry my brothers," Black Beetle said as he placed his hands on both the Blue and Green Beetle's shoulders. "The meat will soon be eating out of your hands. Else they will not eat at all."

**I'll get free. You hear me? I'LL GET FREE!**

No matter what Jaime said, yelled, or threatened, the scarab simply ignored him. It was as if everything was a dream with his consciousness half awake and unable to control his body. All he could do was yell at the scarab and try to regain control, that, and curse himself for practically handing over the planet to the invaders and dooming his family, friends, and mankind.


	10. Chapter 10: Before War

10.

**AN: This takes place before the most recent episode, "War"**

**Blüdhaven**

"Good. Go for it again." Standing in the middle of the warehouse the team currently used as a base, Conner watched the smaller green team member as he took a few steps back and retook a fighting position.

"You sure? I slipped on that last kick," Garfield responded.

"But you compensated for it. It was a miniscule fault but you did a good job in continuing the attack. Now try it again."

Advancing once more, Garfield led with a left jab followed by a right hook. Conner blocked both hits as a kick came his way. The shape shifter, upon having his kick blocked, immediately countered with a spinning back kick to Conner's other side. When he was sure the youngest member of the team wasn't paying attention, the Kryptonian advanced with a few powerless punches of his own. They too were blocked as Garfield brought his arms up to protect his head from the attack. In what could only be described as a blur of movement, the green hero morphed into a monkey and flipped over his partner's much larger arm and morphed back to deliver a dropkick to his chest, forcing Conner to take a few steps back.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry." Garfield had both hands over his mouth as he panicked, realizing he hit his training partner harder than he meant to.

"Don't sweat it." Conner stepped right back up in the middle of the improvised training area while wiping some dirt from the red 'S' shield on his long sleeved shirt. "We're training, accidents happen."

"That's not what you used to say," Nightwing commented as he watched the two from the other side of the building. "Remember the first time Kaldur struck you a little too hard?"

Conner scoffed at the thought.

"Was it really that bad?" Garfield asked.

"If he had heat vision, Kaldur would have been a grilled salmon."

"Mind if we take a break?" the green youth asked with a nervous smile.

"Gar, I'm not going to fry you." Conner told him as he eyed the team's leader. "Can't say the same for someone else."

Clearing his throat, Nightwing took his leave. He needed to meet up with Mal outside the warehouse anyway.

"Hey, Conner?" Garfield asked. "When we get M'gann out, can I be on the team that goes in after her? I wanna make sure she's safe when we get there."

"Don't see why not. You've gotten better at defending yourself and quicker in your morphs. I'll talk to Nightwing about having you on Alpha team the moment we get her location."

Cheeky could not come close to describe the grin on the morpher's face with what he said next. "And maybe when you free her, you two can-"

"Gar," Conner said as his face slightly twitched. "Go take a break." The youth nodded with the grin still on his face and headed for the back of the warehouse where a cooler was set up on a table.

It had been several days since the incident at Taos where Blue Beetle was called to assist the four runaways. Since then, the remaining team members had been readying themselves for any mission that may come up. They each sparred with one another with some of the exercises being two on two. The purpose for the latter was to get each team member used to working with the others and having more of a variety to choose for missions. As the two separated, Nightwing opened the large metal door to the front of the warehouse. It was happenstance that he came face to face with Karen as she and Cassie, in their mission gear, went to gain entrance to the building.

"Hey, Wing," Karen greeted. "Have you seen Mal?"

"I'm just now going to meet up with him. He's out back with the Guardian suit he's been working on."

"What Guardian suit? He's seriously not-"

"Maybe this is something you should speak to him about. Cass, if you want to join us, you can see what he's done to the armor."

"No thanks," Cassie told her leader. "I wanted to see if anyone wanted to train. It gets boring patrolling when all the bad guys run away from you. I could use a good scrap."

"They run from you because you're capable of throwing them through a brick wall, Cass." Karen pointed out.

"Still, they could at least try to put up a fight."

Nightwing scoffed and shook his head in amusement. "Conner and Garfield just took a break. Maybe one of them could help you out."

"Thanks." As Cassie eagerly made her way inside, Nightwing turned back to Karen.

"Nightwing, I don't want Mal in the field." Karen told him. "He's a brain, not a fighter."

"Actually, he's been showing a great deal of improvement in his fighting skills. Because of which, I let him upgrade the armor and was on my way to check it out."

"Fine, if you're not gonna talk some sense into him, I will."

Back behind the warehouse, Mal was on his knees in front of a mannequin with the Guardian armor on. His hands were covered in polish as he worked on buffering out the smudges he left behind on the metallic parts. An open toolbox lay open at his feet along with various gears and his laptop. Its screen displayed a synchronization menu and was ninety seven percent complete.

"Mal? Malcolm Arnold Duncan, you back here?" Karen called out.

The tone his girlfriend used sent shivers up his spine. He may be a giant compared to her but as every man knows, a woman of any size with that tone and usage of his full name was enough to make him feel extremely small. He immediately stood and grew a large smile to cover up his nervousness. "Uh, Karen, hey, baby."

"Mal, what do you think you're doing?"

"Um…"

"Well?"

"Uh…"

"Answer me." She crossed her arms and stuck a hip out.

"Maybe if you would let him explain?" Nightwing commented.

"What was that, Mr. Commitment issue?"

Nightwing folded his lips inward and turned away from the couple, careful not to say anything least he receive an electrical sting from the black and yellow clad woman.

"What are you thinking?" Karen asked her boyfriend as she resumed her interrogation.

"Um, Karen? I was just putting some…upgrades on the Guardian armor."

"To go into battle?"

"Well…"

"And potentially get killed?"

"Karen-"

"Mal, you can't do that," Karen said sternly. "You're a mission coordinator, not a field operative."

"Woman, if you would just hear me out!" Mal said somewhere between a yell and a normal tone of voice. "I went over this with Nightwing. He told me if I have a good enough reason to go into the field and show I can hold my own, I can be on team missions and not waiting at the base. I don't want to sit on my butt and worry every time the radios go down. We are strained enough as it is and the more we have in the field, the better our odds are for getting the job done and coming home."

"Did he mention what happens if we fail?"

"He told me everything. This is my choice. I can do more than monitor mission progress. I can fight and help where needed, not just sit back and listen to everyone shout how things are not working out. I know I may not make it back. I'm just tired of being over looked and not being able to properly have your backs when on a mission."

Karen kept her hardened gaze on him.

"I know I may get killed. But I would rather that happened trying to protect any member of this team and not sitting behind a computer."

Letting out a huff, Karen looked over at Nightwing then back at Mal. "I don't know what you told him, but I don't want you in the field."

"Karen, I'm going out on the next mission. I'm trained to his expectations. I've augmented the armor to fit my needs. I'm-"

She held up a finger to stop Mal mid-sentence. "Wing, one request," The sternness in her voice refused to falter, "next mission, he's in my squad. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes, or else I'll take this up with Barbra, Zatanna, and Raquel, and they will see it my way. Got that?"

"Um, (cough), yeah. Yeah I got it." Nightwing dared not add anything more should she go through with her threat.

As she left, Mal felt his manhood creep back to him. He finally relaxed his muscles and could see Nightwing behaving the same way. Once Karen rounded the corner of the warehouse, she leaned on the building and released a long breath as she wrapped her arms around herself. "Hope the lug knows what he's doing."

"I'm not training with you, Cassie," Conner said as he stomped to his cot.

"But why not?" The blonde heroine chased him practically everywhere in the warehouse, fully intent on wearing down the hybrid. "I need someone to push me physically and you're the only one who's in the same super strong category as me."

"You don't remember what happened last time? You got in my mind, made me say things that weren't meant for others."

"I told you, I'm sorry about that. How many times do I have to apologize?"

"Once, but it doesn't mean I have to trust you." Plopping down on his cot, Conner pulled his fingerless gloves off then folded his hands behind his head to try to relax.

"Fine, I won't use my rope this time. Girl scouts honor."

"Not good enough. You use your rope in battle and shouldn't train without it, but I'm not training with you with that lasso of yours."

"Oh come on, cross my bracelets and hope to earn a tiara like Wonder Woman's."

Conner opened one of his eyes and saw the eager blonde cross her wrists at her bracelets while giving him a large, hopeful smile.

"I believe I can help with this." Coming up to the two powerhouses, Garfield strutted to Conner's cot and presented him with a long nylon rope. "I present to you a lasso alternative. It can hold up to five hundred pounds and does not make you reveal your deepest of darkest secrets."

Opening his second eye, Conner looked at the rope in the youth's hands. He turned to look at the wide smiling blonde. She had moved her hands under her chin and made hers eyes wide with anticipation of his answer. She nodded her head quickly, causing Conner to let out a groan as he got to his feet.

"Yay!" Cassie piped as she took to the air and grabbed the rope from Garfield. "Conner, if it weren't for your disposition, I would totally hug you but I know you're not the hugging type so I won't." She handed her lasso to the green kid and flew to the middle of the warehouse gleefully.

"Gar," Conner said as he leaned down to meet the shorter of the two. "You're this close to getting on my nerves."

As the veteran team member went to join the over eager girl, Garfield only smiled. "As if."

The previous time Conner and Cassie sparred ended with her tying him up and making him confess several secrets of his to everyone in the then standing Hall of Justice. This time, Conner came out on top as he managed to subdue Cassie by forcing her to tap out to a Twister submission hold. Those outside caught the last twenty minutes of the session with the guys cheering when Conner got the win, as if it really mattered to him.

"Conner," Nightwing yelled as he entered through the warehouse door. "League's requesting us to report to Watchtower."

"Is it an emergency?" Garfield asked.

"They didn't say. The rest of you can go back to your homes in the meantime but stand by in case you're needed."

After the others left, Conner and Nightwing got ready to head to the nearest Zeta Tube with Garfield, Bart, Wolf, and Sphere staying behind in the warehouse. Cassie also chose to stay and work on her moves behind the building while Mal was trying his best to ease Karen's worry over his safety as they made plans to head back to Ivy Town.

"So, what's the reason they want us in Watchtower this time?" Conner asked.

"I didn't want to alert the others," Nightwing replied, keeping his voice low. "but they're picking up on something heading our way. It's entering Pluto's orbit as we speak."

Conner snarled slightly. "Don't you think keeping secrets from the team is a bad idea? Or haven't you been paying attention lately?"

Looking down, the team leader let out a huff of air. "I deserve that. But if this…thing the League is picking up poses a threat, if it's part of The Reach, The Light, or something else entirely, my betrayal of trust may be insignificant compared to what they may have planned for us. We're fighting a war we can't afford to lose. Bart's been there and has seen what happens if we fall. We're changing the future, Conner."

Conner looked Nightwing square in his mask covered eyes. "Then make sure you're capable of leading us into one worth having."

As the Kryptonian headed for the Zeta Tube, Nightwing looked up into the sky and hoped the off world Leaguers were in a better position than they were.


	11. Chapter 11: Before Complications

11.

**AN: Takes place shortly before and during Complications.**

**Watchtower**

The report came in over static. Whose voice it was, he didn't know, but it was urgent and the person on the other end sounded in dire straits. He wouldn't stop talking fast and continually kept tripping over his words, not that they could be understood. To Nightwing, the urgency of whosever words were coming in felt like something out of a war movie during an enemy attack.

"Conner!" Nightwing yelled into his ear mounted communicator in the hopes he could reach the designated field leader for the mission to War World. "Conner, come in! Do you copy!"

Nothing came over the signal and only made the team leader that much more nervous.

"Guardian, do you read? Bumblebee, Beast Boy, sound off!

Still, nothing came back to him. Then the yelling stopped, and Nightwing literally felt his heart come to a halt.

"Conner? Mal? Rob…Robin? Roy, Cassie, anyone!" No one answered back. "Captain Atom," Nightwing barely managed to say into his earpiece. "Meet me in War…War World's hanger. My team is M.I.A. Repeat, they're M.I.A."

It took some time to get a Zeta Tube programmed to open up in the hanger of War World. Despite how worried he was, Nightwing kept a sense of calmness about him as he came before the two beetles and Captain Atom. Blue Beetle informed him on what happened, which he verified by using his hollow-computer. His team was captured. All were M.I.A and he had no clue as to what went down.

No sooner had the beetles left and Captain Atom went to check on the others, Nightwing finally let his emotionless façade down. Sometimes he wondered how he would act if he never met the man responsible for his training and upbringing. Would he show his emotions more when he should remain strong and silent? Would he crack under the pressure of a being in a battle? How would he handle being a leader, especially when the ones he was supposed to be in charge of have vanished without a trace? The only answer he had at the moment was 'Be Batman; be the detective.'

And that was what he did.

He had to find his team. He had to know what happened in the few moments between when they all reported in and when they ceased to occupy the massive interstellar war machine. The first thing he did was pull up his hollow-computer and have it digitally mark where the Boom Tube trace signature was. He then had it mark where each signal of the team's communicators were and where they coincided with the Tube's signature.

"Mal and Karen were here beside Sphere," he said as he placed an 'M' and a 'K' where the two were and an 'O' where the machine was. Garfield…Garfield was here."

He went over to where the youngest team member was last located at the time of his communicator's shutoff and placed a 'G' where he was.

"Impulse was here beside Blue," he placed a 'B' in the speedster's spot and a 'J' in the Beetle's. "Cassie had the big bad subdued and was here with Conner close by…right here." He marked the two's vicinity with a 'C' for Cassie and an 'S' for Conner. "Arsenal was by the bay door but why? And where did Wolf go?" He marked Arsenal's position with an 'R' "But if they were all here, why did they move about so fast?"

He marked several new positions on his display and played a time loop of their movements across the hanger according to where their communicator's signals were originating. It didn't make sense. The way they were moving was like someone or something got the drop on them. Taking a look around, the ninja trained hero followed each path that was taken until their communicators went off. He even took to watching how it unfolded overhead and quickly made different connections. Several were taken out without moving. Others advanced but looked to have been blown back. A few looked to have put up a fight as their signature's movements dictated.

Leaping down from a scaffold, Nightwing checked the ground at a strange mark. Two slices were evident in the flooring, almost as if a weapon were used at that spot. Another dual slices were nearby, both marked where Cassie's signature was last active before her comm unit shut down.

Following the path of his protégé, Robin, he put himself in his place and imagined what he would do when confronted with a surprise attack. No doubt he would throw a Bird-A-Rang at his attacker to distract and attack. Sure enough, there was one of Robin's weapons embedded in the wall of the hanger. Upon inspection of it, he found traces of Blue Beetle's armor, meaning he would have to have attacked him as they were not in the pattern of a glancing blow. An accidental hit was slim to none as he, Robin, and Batgirl were all experts in using the ranged weapons and misses like that were not common.

"Everyone's here, everyone's accounted for except Wolf, Sphere, and Arsenal. Wolf was with Conner's team, which means he would be near him and Cassie. Sphere was with Guardian and Bumblebee but she's not anywhere. Arsenal seemed to disappear after everyone else was offline and the Boom Tube signature occurred shortly after this all went down. Why would Blue Beetle say the Boom Tube took them all and leave him when he and Arsenal's signatures were the only ones moving at the time?"

Looking over the area once more, Nightwing carefully took mental pictures of it and made sure what he marked on his Hollow-computer matched with what he saw. He palmed Robin's Bird-A-Rang and took a close look at it. Something wasn't right. There was a gap that couldn't be filled in the story he was given. And why was the power crystal taken by whoever was responsible for all this? If it were the main target, then why take the team prisoner? It would have been quicker to simply take the crystal and leave the team behind, unless there was an ulterior motive and the identity of the attacker had to be kept quiet.

**Blüdhaven – Several Hours Later**

Nightwing didn't like what he was thinking. Everything he had gone over in the hanger was plugged into the computer in the warehouse. It wasn't what Blue Beetle said it was. The mission was almost over. All that was left was coming home where they would switch to searching for their comrades behind enemy lines. Everything was simple in the beginning. He wanted to be leader but needed better understanding of what that entails. He was a strategist, a spy, and a hacker. He was not the one put in command of the team and in turn was responsible for their actions and consequences. He was not responsible for their wellbeing. He was only meant to carry out missions, to see his part through. Now he was the leader, charged with everything a leader was entitled to both good and bad. This was all on him.

"Mal, you were right. I've been looking at things to close."

A sneer crossed his face as he watched TV. A shot of the United Nations was being broadcasted across the country with their representative taking his place at the podium. The sight of the man sickened him. He was being duped and didn't even know it, just like himself. When the Reach's ambassador came on camera, he directed his attention to Robin's left over Bird-A-Rang.

The answer had already been found out. Nightwing went over everything and was certain of his findings. He took the weapon in both hands as the alien ambassador went on about Earth's savior and introduced Blue Beetle to the stand. It was of no surprise to him to see the armored team member there. He already had the answer he was looking for and wanted to hear it from the one responsible for taking his team out. The trap wasn't in the hanger waiting for them, it was among them the entire time. The grip he had on the Bird-A-Rang tightened ever so slightly.

"Thank you. Thank you, all," Blue Beetle said as the camera focused on him and he called back his mask. "But it is I who should express gratitude to you, ambassador, for giving a normal, average human being like me, the power of the Reach; the power to save the world."

That was all he needed to hear.

**AN: Short, I know, but awesome ep this week. I just didn't want to infer on the next one. And may I add: ARRRRGGGGG! Only four more eps left in the series. Friggin sucks!**


	12. Chapter 12: Coincides with The Hunt

12.

**AN: Thanks for sticking around this long for my 'twean chaps' for the show I've been doing. This takes place during and slightly after the current episode, "The Hunt"**

**War World - Arsenal**

"_Gotta…gotta keep running. I'll ne…never go back to the pod. The, the nightmares, making my fears seem real, hearing what everyone outside said about me…my arm. They'll never take me back_."

For the last few hours, Arsenal managed to elude capture by Reach forces on War World. Crimson armored soldiers relentlessly gave chase as they fired upon him with energy based weapons in the shape of spears. Yellowish orange light flew passed him and were getting closer with every passing second. A few grazed his red and black armor, leaving light burns on his skin underneath. The smell of burnt flesh stung his nostrils along with singed hair and Kevlar.

"Need power, can't rely on hand to hand alone to get me out of here." Taking off the cover for one of the hallway terminals inside War World, Arsenal sneered at what he found underneath. "Why can't aliens use the same power jacks we use on earth? Now I gotta waste time splicing my arm's power cord just to get what I need and if this thing makes that stupid beeping noise again, I swear- GAH!"

A spark ignited from the terminal and produced a light shock to his fingers, making him pull back quickly and shove his burnt fingers in his mouth. He was on the verge of losing what was left of his temper and smashing the offending terminal. "Stupid machine!"

Peeling back the rubber covering from the cord attached to his arm with his teeth and fingernails, he succeeded in freeing the metal wires within. About two inches of the cord was uncovered and twisted to form a point before being jammed into an open port on the terminal. His anger soon turned to relief as he finally caught his first break since everything hit the fan and the mission failed.

"Now if my luck would just hold out until my arm's done recharging, maybe, maybe I can look for the others, if I don't get caught in the meantime."

**Stasis Pods – Batgirl**

At first glance inside the red containment stasis pods where prisoners of War World were held captive, members of the team appeared to be slumbering. None made a move or appeared to try as they hung in the positions they were put in.

"But dad, you joined the police force when you were fresh out of school, why can't I?" Barbra chased down her father, Jim Gordon, within his home in Gotham. They had been going back and forth like this since she arrived to speak with him about what she wanted to do with her life after high school.

"Barbra, I'm not going to discuss this with you again!" Jim said. "There is no way my daughter will involve herself with such a dangerous career."

"But, dad-"

"No buts, no ifs, no maybes. You think it's easy being a rookie cop on the beat in Gotham? You would not believe the things I've seen, the things I had to contend with, and not a day went by that I didn't have to draw my gun on some lowlife that wanted to put a bullet in my head."

"I want to be a detective, not a street cop. You've seen my grades in the required classes, I'm at the top of the class when it comes to-"

"Not another word! You've seen the type of criminals that are out there. You've seen what they are capable of doing and they have no second thoughts about it. I do not want my daughter being stared down by some clown aiming a gun at her and being shot!"

"Dad, I-"

"I said no and I mean no!" Running a hand over his head, Jim's hair turned from its salt and pepper coloring to a dark green. "Now, be a good girl and put on a smile for dear 'ol dad."

Backing up, Barbra instantly felt her entire body grow cold as her father began laughing. His normal peach colored skin began to whiten, not only in his hands, but on his exposed arms, neck…and face. The clothing, a pair of slacks and a button up collared shirt changed in both appearance and color, becoming a tailored purple suit. The entire transformation made the teenage girl's eyes grow wide in shock and let out a silent cry as The Joker continued laughing manically and turned to face her.

"Da…daddy?" Worry and question filled Barbra's voice as she watched the Clown Prince of Crime step forward.

"Well, what a pretty little rodent we have here." He slicked back his emerald hair as he giggled evily.

"Rodent? What are you?" Taking a look at herself, the teen saw she was dressed in a black and gray costume with a cape. Her hands patted the material she recognized as her Batgirl costume when she heard an all too familiar click.

Her eyes centered on the barrel of a revolver aimed directly at her head, forcing her to back up in a panic. "Wait, don't-"

A gun shot rang out as a bullet struck her in the stomach.

Outside in her stasis cell she shared with Wolf and Conner, the seemingly peaceful Batgirl tried to waken from her nightmare but couldn't.

**War World – Tye, Asami, Virgil, Eduardo**

"We need to go this way," Virgil said to the others as he shifted the man-hole cover he uses to ride on under an arm. Despite wearing a ball cap, sweat dripped in his eyes from running through the alien ship in search for the captured heroes who rescued them previously.

"Dude, chill out," Eduardo told him. "You're not the one with the brother box."

"I am certain it is called a 'Father Box'," Tye told him. "At least that's what Luther called it."

"Whatever. How do we know if it's leading us to Superboy anyway? It could be leading us on a wild goose chase for all we know."

"_Zhè zhǒng fāngshì_." Asami said as she pointed down a corridor.

"Uh, what?" Eduardo asked.

"I think she means, 'this way'," Virgil told him.

Following Asami, the three boys kept their eyes open for any threats. Several crimson armored Reach guards popped out of a room as a door slid up to let them out. Upon seeing the small group, they opened fire with their blast spears and moved to prevent them from advancing any further.

Pocketing the Father Box, Asami shot forward, leaving a trail of distorted wind in her wake as she smashed into two of the guards. All the remainder saw was a green blur of her jacket fly by before a bright light appeared in front of them. Eduardo landed a punch to one of the soldier's heads but immediately regretted doing so as it left his fist aching.

Grabbing the attacking teen by his sleeveless jacket, the soldier raised his fist to deliver a punch of his own when the teen disappeared in a bright light. The shot went wide as the soldier put a great deal of weight behind the attack and had his fist sail through the air, forcing him to spin around and face the other way. Eduardo then appeared back behind him and drove his head into the floor.

"I'll take that back." He grabbed his jacket from the unconscious soldier just as another one aimed his spear at him.

Eduardo had just enough time to see the flash of light from the spear as Tye slammed a yellow astral hand over his attacker, knocking him out as another large hand swept several more into the wall. They all fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.

"Jeez, you guys really need to work on your aim," Virgil shouted as he zipped between flashes of energy while riding his man hole cover like a hover board. Raising his hands, the dark skinned young man unleashed several pulses of static energy to bring the remaining Reach soldiers down.

"_Kuài diǎn, zhèyàng yī lái chāorén_!" the dark haired Asian girl yelled to the others as she pulled out the Father Box again.

"Could you slow down!" Wiping his brow of sweat, the messy haired Eduardo groaned while fitting his knit hat back on his head and Tye deformed his astral body from around himself.

"Come on," the Indian teen told him as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "You really want to stay behind with the aliens?"

With a shake of his head, Eduardo kicked one of the fallen soldiers and followed the others. "What do you think is going on with the _cautivos_?"

"Don't know. I just hope we're not too late. And Asami's on the right track to find them."

**Stasis Pods – Beast Boy**

It was a bright day on the Logan Ranch with the sun warming the earth to its usual temperature. A large group of people were gathered on the African land around dozens upon dozens of large flower arrangements. Somber instrumental hymns filled the air around the ones gathered as a single white casket was brought to a large, neatly dug, six foot deep hole with straps lined across it to lower said casket once it was placed on them.

Sitting at the front of the group of people closest to the casket's last stop was a young brown haired boy with green eyes barely in his teens wearing a black suit. His face was red from wiping tears from his face since his mother, who was being laid to rest, died in an accident caused by the evil dictator, Queen Bee.

Beside him was the one he considered his blood sister, M'gann. She was in her Megan disguise with peach skin to blend in with the rest instead of her usual Martian green one. Like him, she was dressed in black with her dress reaching down to her ankles. Her boyfriend, Conner, matched the others in his black suit as he and several other pallbearers carried Garfield's mother's coffin to her grave. As the casket was lowered into the earth, people lined up to drop a hand full of dirt on it as well as toss a flower while showing their respects.

"Gar, are you okay?" M'gann asked softly as the young boy stared at the grave that was yet to be filled.

"I…I guess." He sniffled and ran a few fingers over his eyes as more tears fell.

"What about your aunts or uncles? Don't you have anyone you could go with?"

"No. It was just me and my mom…and the animals."

The disguised Martian looked over at Conner who had just finished with tossing his hand full of dirt on the coffin as it lowered into the ground. "Well, I talked it over with Conner and the others at Happy Harbor and we've all agreed on what to do."

"Am I coming with you?"

"What? Come with us?"

"What did he ask?" Conner asked as he joined them.

"He asked if he was coming with us." M'gann told him.

"Is he kidding? Why would we want to take his with us? He's useless."

"That's what I was fixing to tell him."

"Me…Megan? Conner?" The boy felt his lower lip quiver and another flood of tears threaten to be unleashed from his eyes.

"What?" M'gann asked. "It's the truth. You really can't do anything and if you can't help the team, you're pretty much on your own."

"Now that's a lie," Conner said. "I know who can take him in."

"Wha…What are…?" Garfield stood from his seat as he never took his eyes off the couple. They only looked at him with smiles on their faces as he backed up. "I thought-"

"What did you think, Gar?" Conner asked. The pet monkey Garfield had hopped on the strong man's shoulder and screeched angrily at the boy. "Did you really think we liked you? Did you really think we would take you back to live at the mountain with us? Like some sort of surrogate family?"

"Conner, quit being mean," M'gann scolded as she stood up and wrapped her arms around her boyfriend's waist. "It's not that we hate you, Gar. It's just…your…okay, we pretty much hate you."

"And now," said a voice from behind the boy, "you're all mine."

Turning around, Garfield saw the woman known as Queen Bee saunter through the crowd of people attending his mother's funeral. Her yellow and black outfit did its job of getting the men's attention with the white sheer wing-like fabric floating in her wake. He could hear the women around him comment on how they wish they could be like her while the men pledged their love to her. As for the Martian and Kryptonian, they stood away from him as the dictator stopped and kneeled before him.

"Listen to me you worthless little brat," she reached up to roughly grab Garfield by the face. "You were supposed to be in the jeep with your mother and die just like her. That is a problem easily fixed."

Grabbing him by the arm, Queen Bee drug him over to the unfilled hole and forced him to his knees.

"Look down there! Look at where you belong!"

The casket opened to reveal a swirling purple and white bottomless hole. Struggle as Garfield did, he couldn't break the grip Queen Bee had on him. Those attending the funeral laughed as he was shoved over the edge by his neck with the toes of his shoes being the only thing touching the ground behind him. Both Conner and M'gann smiled evily and waived as he felt the dictator prepare to drop him.

"What is it you always say, Con?" M'gann asked sweetly.

"I hate monkey boys." He then reached down and kissed her as Garfield looked at his hands, which had turned into monkey paws.

He was then thrown into the bottomless pit, screaming the entire way.

**War World – Nightwing and Miss Martian**

With the hanger far behind them, Nightwing and Miss Martian held on tightly to Sphere as she raced through corridor after corridor in search of her master, Conner. The team's leader kept his eye on the homing beacon displayed on Sphere's dash panel where he sat with Miss Martian concentrating on using her telekinesis to open half closed doors and remove deactivated security droids out of their way. Aside from a few red armored soldiers Sphere blasted, they met no real resistance whatsoever.

"Miss M," Nightwing said as he monitored Conner's signal on the dashboard, "can you raise anyone on the mental link?"

"No, I'm not picking anyone up." Miss Martian responded. I am detecting Arsenal, but only faintly along with four unknown individuals. If we get closer, I can tell who they are."

"Let me know as soon as you can. We need everyone back, I need to know if these new comers are on our side or not."

Moving aside another door, Miss Martian looked down at the sentient machine. "Sphere, how far are we away from Conner, girl?"

The alien device beeped several times and showed a countdown of the distance in meters along with a projected map of the area they were in.

"I don't get it, I should be able to raise them on the mental link, I…" Her eyes grew wide as another presence came to her. "Nightwing, the other four, they're the ones from Taos, the ones we rescued from The Reach. That's who's here and…and they're in a fight with Black Beetle with Arsenal! Do you want me to contact them and tell them we're on our way?"

"Negative," Nightwing ordered. "They may let on we're coming and we need to keep ourselves as hidden as possible until the last minute. And if Green Beetle's here by any chance, we could be caught trying to help them. Just be ready to-"

"Uh, we also have another problem. I'm detecting a large group of Reach soldiers just outside their position and…now I'm reading another presence with an extreme hatred for The Reach. It's nearly complete chaos in there."

"And at this rate it'll take us another three, four minutes to get there."

**Stasis Pods – Superboy**

It was another normal day at the warehouse in Blüdhaven. The building was empty except for Conner who was sitting in front of the large TV with a certain channel on. White and black filled the screen as a hissing noise came from the speakers. It may have seemed unusual to others that a young man would closely watch a static filled screen but that was always the case with Conner. In fact, the only reason he watched the endless cycle of static was because it calmed him, made him feel at ease and content. He was always close to having a rage-filled tantrum when he was in the first year of his life, since then he's managed to keep his anger down, except when it came to his ex and a certain Atlantiean's relationship at times. Not Kaldur.

For the past hour, he stared at the screen, rarely blinking as he saw images within the static snow, images of the old team, places he's been to, events the Genomorphs described, experiences he's had. Everything was clear to him in his own world.

"_Conner_," a deep voice echoed around him.

He instantly sat up at the intrusion of his privacy and looked around.

"_Conner._"

"Who's here?" he questioned.

"_Nobody, except me, my boy._"

"Luther?"

"_Exactly, my boy._"

"Where are you?!" Jumping out of his seat, Conner switched to his infrared vision when he didn't see anyone else in the building with him.

"_No, no, your infrared sight will not be of any use to you I'm not where you can see me._"

"Then where are you?"

"_Your head._"

Conner's eyes grew wide at the revelation.

"_Did you really think you were free of me? My boy, you can never be rid of me. Especially with your Martian girl…excuse me, ex-girlfriend's abilities in my records. If I can get around Martian Manhunter's mental abilities, what makes you think I can't get around hers?_"

"She…she cleared it all out. There's no way you can-"

"_Prime_." At the saying of that word, Conner grew still and stood at attention with his arms at his sides and a straight back.

Several hours later, Impulse, Guardian, and Bumblebee returned to the warehouse with wolf and Sphere. Upon entering the building, they noticed the lights were off and the soft sound of static from the TV.

"Conner?" Guardian called as he took off his helmet. "Yo, Conner. You in here, bud?"

No answer.

"Conner, compadre, amigo, comrade, buddy, pal, where are-" before Impulse could finish his question, he was struck down from above as Conner landed on him, crushing his chest under a boot.

"Conner?!" Mal yelled as he saw the speedster go down. He was met with a hard punch to the center of his chest, stopping his heart, and putting him down for good.

"Mal!" Bumblebee shouted as she went into action.

The ethnic woman shrunk down to her miniature size and engaged the Kryptonian, zapping him with her stinger bolts while dodging Conner's open hands as he tried to smash her to the floor. It was then when the metal door opened and Wonder Girl entered with Batgirl and Robin by her side. The distraction was enough for the insect sized woman to be grabbed by her foe and crushed before he threw her at the blonde protégé of Wonder Woman.

"What the…Karen?" Wonder Girl cried in shock.

"Cass, move!" Batgirl shouted as she tackled the blonde out of the way. The two landed within the building as Conner's fist hit the ground where they once stood.

With a roar, Conner attacked Robin who pulled out his bo staff and worked on blocking the enraged hybrid's attacks. His weapon was soon broken with him crashing into the metal railing chest first, saving him from falling into the water at the cost of several loud cracks emanating from his body.

"What are you doing?" Wonder Girl asked as she locked in a choke hold from behind. "Why are you-"

Grabbing her by the hair, Conner slammed her into the concrete floor as Batgirl threw two exploding Bat-A-Rangs at his back. They didn't faze him in the slightest as he turned his attention to her. She was no match for him when it came to sheer strength but was on par with him when it came to dodging his attacks.

She ducked and dove out of his way as large fists sailed over her head and kicks hit nothing but air; however, her cape was not as good as avoiding attacks and was grabbed by the Krypto-human. He used the cloth addition to her costume to bring her close where he prepared to deliver a head crushing punch when a yellow rope wrapped around his wrist.

"Conner, why are you-"

Not giving Wonder Girl time to finish, Conner threw the bat themed woman into her then leapt after them. He quickly pulled the roped off his wrist and tied the two women up. Since the rope was unbreakable neither could escape or cut through it. He then picked them up and carried them to the water where he slammed them in the liquid and held them down until they stopped breathing.

Looking for the new Robin, Conner used his super hearing and heard the young hero huff and wheez, evident from busted ribs and a punctured lung. It didn't take him long to find him as he attempted to use the nearby Zeta Beam teleporter. The powerhouse broke his way in and grabbed the red and black teen by the collar of his costume. Ripping him out of the teleporter, Conner held the door open as he slammed the young hero to the ground and closed half his body inside with his legs kicking to get free. The Zeta Beam activated and his legs ceased to move.

A short time later, Conner arrived at the hospital L'gaan was being treated at. He stomped through the halls as he made his way to the elevator and waited for the twin doors to open. Once they separated, he was met by Arsenal who was surprised to see him and didn't know what to say as Conner resembled Arnold from the Terminator sequel, only instead of blood and torn skin, he was covered with streaks of black soot from explosions. His shirt was in tatters and his pants had a long rip on the right leg from the knee down.

"What on Earth happened to you?" the near bald redhead asked a moment before he was shoved back inside the elevator.

A ding sounded his arrival on the floor where L'gann's room was. As the doors opened, the Luther controlled Kryptonian stepped out and shifted his eyes slowly from left to right with his head following his gaze. He left the elevator with Arsenal inside, shocked with his own mechanical arm with a burnt up face.

"_Good boy,_" Luther said within his mind. "_Four more to go and then on to…bigger plans._"

Reaching the injured Antlantien's room, Conner kicked open the door and watched it fly across the room as it was embedded in the far wall. L'gaan sat up quickly in his bed with a surprised expression on his bulbous eyed face. "Clone? What are you-"

Grabbing the fish human by the neck, Conner lifted him up and slammed him back down. He repeated this several times before letting him go and breaking his other leg, for balance. L'gaan's bone stuck out of his shin with him screaming in pain. He then grabbed hold of the dresser against the wall and used it as a battering ram to create a large hole in the side of the building.

"Conner?" Nightwing said as he ran into the hospital room. "Conner, what's-"

Rushing the team leader, Conner grabbed him by the neck and reached for one of the masked man's pouches. He pulled out an exploding Bird-A-Rang and shoved it in his stomach before kicking him into the restroom and shut the door where it exploded, taking the leader out.

Turning back to the suffering Atlantean, the super strong young man grabbed him roughly by the neck and picked him up. Before reaching the hole he created, he slammed his defenseless prey onto the floor then into the sheetrock three times. He threw him out of the room and watched his former teal colored teammate fall to the street below. The fish boy was first caught by electrical wires and burned beyond recognition as he was shocked with the city's electricity. His corpse bounced off the wires and fell onto the street where an eighteen wheeler tried to stop but jackknifed instead. It crashed on its side, landing on L'gaan's body and exploded in a brilliant ball of fire. Conner grinned at his handy work

"_That was a bit overkill, don't you think?_" Lex commented. "_I ordered you to get rid of your former teammate quickly, not to take your time in doing so._"

Conner's grin turned into a smile.

"Conner?"

Turning back around, Conner laid eyes on Beast Boy who stared at him unbelievably. The ice cream cone in his hands fell to the floor as Miss Martian entered behind him.

Acting fast, Conner grabbed the bedpan and threw it at the green youth, knocking him out, before attacking the Martian girl who was the bigger threat. Tackling her to the ground, he wrapped his hands around her neck and proceeded to choke the life out of her. Her eyes turned green for an instant then turned back as she looked upon him. He didn't show any emotion whatsoever as he robbed her of her life.

"_C…Conner…stop_," she pleaded mentally as she fought for air. "_Please…stop_."

A shimmer of his former self shot across his eyes and he hesitated in what he was doing.

"_Don't listen to the Martian witch, kill her!_" Lex ordered. "_Kill her, become what I created you to be_!"

He tried to fight Lex's control but it was just too strong. He had his orders and was two team members away from completing them. His head began to shake, a show as to how hard he was fighting against his programming as his face turned red and M'gann's turned purple.

"_Do it now_!" Lex ordered. "_Kill her! Kill her! KILL HER!_"

**War World – Stasis Bay**

Hitting the ground with a thud, Beast Boy, Batgirl, and the rest of the captured team members woke up slightly out of it with headaches as Conner was supported by Eduardo. Nearby, Mongol and Black Beetle held nothing back as they waged their own war. On Nightwing's orders the four youths labeled runaways by the leader helped carry those still out of it from the battle and to the waiting bioship.

After taking their seats within the ship, Those who were in the stasis pods shook off what they went through, some took longer than others, but all knew they were just their worst fears brought on by the suspended animation. And yet, Batgirl kept quieter than she normally was and Beast Boy, who had pushed all memories of that nightmare out of his head, was just too thrilled to have M'gann back that he just had to hug her for a good while and tell her how relieved he was she was back before takeoff.

"Okay, I know things have been pretty bad as of late," Nightwing stated, "and we no longer have Arsenal due to reason's I'll explain back at the warehouse, but I still need to know what exactly went on in there."

"Blue Beetle's a traitor!" Cassie exclaimed.

"He took us by surprise and took the power crystal to War World." Robin stated.

"I know, I know," Nightwing told them. "I determined that shortly after you were all captured. In the meantime, I know it's not a big victory, but M'gann managed to escape, Kaldur's mind is repaired with both he and Artemis are still undercover, and you're all safe. Not to mention The Reach has been forced into the open and the world now knows they have been lying, not about what they're really here for, but enough not to trust them as much. So, after the debrief, get some rest. You all deserve it."

Looking his team over, Nightwing took stock of the shape they were all in before centering on Conner. "Conner."

He didn't answer, only kept looking out the window with his hand hidden by his side. A glance down showed it shaking slightly. He was mentally commanding it to stop its involuntary movement but it wouldn't cease its twitching.

"Conner."

He still didn't respond.

"Conner, wake up!"

Coming out of his trance, the Kryptonian hybrid looked over at the team leader. "What?"

"I want to speak with you first for the debrief on what happened down there as you were the field leader on this mission."

Conner just sank in his chair and went back to looking out the window with what appeared to be a worried expression. He watched the stars go by for a bit before turning to face his teammates. He looked all of them in the eye, remembering what he dreamt about, each set making him feel worse until he looked at Beast Boy's green eyes and felt even more pain at what he dreamt. But as bad as he felt remembering what he dreamt about, it was M'gann's butterscotch eyes that came the closest to making him breakdown completely. It was his worst fear; hurting those he considered family, more or less. But hurting her like that…

"Conner?" Nightwing asked.

"Yeah," Conner sighed as he shifted his gaze from the Martian to his leader, "first thing when we get back." His hand continued to shake even after he made a fist and went back to staring outside.

**AN: To make up for the last entry to my 'Breather' stories as it was so short, I made sure to make this one extra-long. I was watching Demolition Man when I remembered what Spartan said about being in cryostasis with the nightmares and being aware all those years and thought it would be interesting if the team went through something like that. As for Conner's part, the violence came from watching The Expendables and Terminator 2. Yep…Conner's the Terminator of the team…he's a badass.**

**And also, Asami's lines are accurate thanks to translating technology.**


	13. Chapter 13

13.

**AN: Before I start this next part, I got a review concerning the Conner and M'gann part I wrote. I guess I didn't write it properly but I meant to have it as a "even though we're not together, I still care about you as a friend, and since we knew each other since the beginning, I would hate myself for hurting you" kind of way. Any confusion about that, I hope this cleared it up, my bad. **

**And this next part was suggested by a gal pal of mine since her kids like being read my stuff so, on to the next part!**

**Blüdhaven – Warehouse**

"Just, start from the beginning, or a good place for you to start from. And…try to talk slow."

Sitting at a round table within the warehouse in Blüdhaven, Nightwing studied Bart's posture and facial tics to get an idea as to if he's telling the truth or not. Since overlooking the possibility of Blue Beetle switching sides after having his scarab reset, the team leader was now suspicious of everyone, just like his mentor would be. Beside him sat Conner who, with his enhanced hearing, helped in the detection of any lies that may be told by listening for any skips in Bart's heartbeat.

"Ok," Bart said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Before I came back, I was told to carry out certain objectives in this time period to avoid what happens in the future."

"Can you still not tell us who this person is?"

"No. I can't do that. In fact, I shouldn't have done a number of things I've done since coming back in time."

Nightwing looked at Conner who gave a slight nod, indicating he was telling the truth. "Alright, continue."

"Like I told Blue when we were in Taos, What's happening right now is wrong. You all should be in hiding with a number of you and the League dead. The Reach should have over half the planet concurred by now with both beetles leading the way. The reason being is because things are not playing out the way they were written when I was still in the future. I've changed history; you've changed history."

"And what history is that?" Conner asked.

Bart groaned with his face in his hands. "Berry was supposed to die. You were not supposed to rescue the ones captured by The Reach. They were supposed to get the drop on you and destroy the mountain along with the Watchtower soon after."

"And the Green Beetle?" Nightwing asked.

"He was never mentioned. It's like he popped up out of nowhere and is changing things as he goes along. I've been thinking it's possible he's from further in the future than I am, which is why I've never heard of him. Or, he could have been working so far behind the scenes, no one's heard of him. Or he could have been purposely kept out of the records for this reason. I just don't know."

Narrowing his eyes in his best Batman glare, Nightwing stared hard into the eyes of the young speed demon. Aside from the uneasy shifting in his seat and picking of his ear, he didn't look as to be trying to deceive anyone in the least.

"Are you sure you can't go back to your time and get some idea of how we're doing?" Conner asked. "Or maybe a way to be on the same level as the beetles?"

"Negatory, my super strong bud." Bart responded in his usual way. "My time machine's BBR since the mountain."

The image of what he did to two of his teammates in his dream entered Conner's head at the letters 'BBR'. "Wha…what does that mean?"

"Blown beyond repair."

Taking a look at his notes, Nightwing scribbled something down that looked to Conner as the word, 'passed'. "We've gone over the mission to War World, any differences between your time and ours, I think we're pretty much through here. You may go, but stay in contact should something else happen. We need to be ready for anything."

Getting up from the table, Bart grabbed his mask and goggles and looked them over. "Nightwing, SB, Jaime's not a bad guy. It's the scarab that's controlling him. The Reach are the ones controlling him through that machine…thing, on his back. There's got to be a way to get it off or give him control over it again. Just, please, we have to save him."

Nightwing tapped his fingers on the table as Conner leaned back in his seat. "We'll do our best, but understand, if he's too far gone…"

"I get it. Just remember, it's not his fault."

As Bart turned to head back over with the other few who were left, Nightwing stretched once he stood up from his chair. "That about wraps things up for now, except for one thing."

Facing the rising Kryptonian, Nightwing placed a gloved hand on his shoulder to draw his attention. "Conner, I meant for them, not you."

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone in those stasis tubes reported experiencing life-like nightmares except you. I need to know, did you tell me everything during your debrief?"

The look on Nightwing's face when Conner activated that explosive Bird-A-Rang in his dream flashed in Conner's mind. Even though he knew it wasn't real, the feeling it was still clung to the back of his mind. "I told you what you needed to know, nothing less."

"Conner, what did you experience in there?"

"Nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Must be my DNA. I'm not a whole human or Kryptonian."

Crossing his arms, the team leader appeared to raise an eyebrow behind his mask. "That doesn't make sense. Having strands of DNA that are of two different species doesn't mean you can't dream. What are you withholding from me, Conner?"

"Nightwing, you may be the leader of this team, but that doesn't mean I have to obey your every command. If I remember correctly, wasn't it you who decided to withhold information we needed to know? This may not be the same thing, but it is my call and I made it."

"Are you going to keep throwing that in my face?" Nightwing asked. His voice rose slightly and drew the others attention. "I thought I did what was best for the team. Yes, it was the wrong thing to do, especially with how much pain it caused, but I'm more than accepting of the consequences it will bring."

"Then you see my point. If you can withhold information you deem is unimportant, then I can too."

"Conner? Nightwing? What's going on?" M'gann asked as she looked at the two from her game of Monopoly with Garfield.

Conner only glanced at her and Garfield before looking back at Nightwing. "When we're on a mission, I'll do my part. When it's down time…" Not finishing his sentence, the team's powerhouse left his leader behind and headed out of the warehouse.

"Wing, what was that about?" Mal asked as he went over his Guardian armor with Karen beside him.

Running a hand through his hair, Nightwing shook his head and grabbed the notes he had on the team's debriefing from the table. "I have work to do."

Watching their leader head over to the computer center of the warehouse, Garfield and M'gann tried to get back to their game. Gar had yet to roll the dice and M'gann hadn't yet collected her rent money from him after landing on one of her purchased spaces with a hotel on it.

"What do you think's wrong with them?" Garfield asked.

"I don't know, Gar. Everyone's been a little stressed since the mission, maybe they just need a chance to wind down." She watched Nightwing take a seat at the computer and open his notes.

Since their little guilt confession on War World, M'gann was slowly feeling better after realizing the full extent of what she had done to others with the way she had been using her mind rip power. Seeing what she had made of Kaldur's mind and nearly destroying it, she understood just how powerful she had become after all these years on the team. She wasn't just taking them out if the fight or leaving them comatose, she was leaving them in a state worse than death as their psyche was there but unable to do anything at all, a genuine living death.

Lost in thought, it was the sound of the pair of die hitting and rolling on the board that brought her back to reality. "Gar? What are you doing?"

"Taking my turn," he smiled.

"What about my money?"

"What money?"

"The money you owe me for landing on my property." She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Didn't I pay you?" The ape-like boy tried to hold an innocent-like, questioning look on his face, but it slowly gave way to a grin.

"Move your wheelbarrow back to North Carolina Avenue and fork over twelve hundred seventy five dollars and go to jail."

"JAIL?!"

"Yep, that was the third time you rolled doubles."

With a mock groan of disapproval, Garfield took care of his debt and went to jail. "Should've called a mulligan."

M'gann smiled as she took her turn and rolled the dice.

For the past hour, Conner stood alone on the roof of the warehouse with the breeze blowing around him and the sun setting in the distance. Seagulls squawked around him as they fought against the wind to make it to a perch where they would spend the night. He stood with his back to the ledge as he tossed a small stone in his hand. Every once in a while he would throw one of the rocks into the water or see it sail clear across the earth and landing at an unknown spot some distance away.

He was about to throw his nineteenth rock when he heard the metal ladder on the side of the building clang with the weight of someone climbing up it. Reaching the top rung, a dark skinned hand grabbed hold of the top of the ladder and pulled himself up the rest of the way. Letting out a grunt and something that sounded like the cursing of heights, Mal rested against the ledge for a moment before heading over to Conner who turned his head to face the other way.

"Been up here for a while." Mal said as he leaned on the ledge beside Conner who only grunted in response. "Gonna stay out here all night?"

"What do you want, Mal?" Conner answered flatly.

"That obvious, huh?"

"Tuh." Taking the stone in his hand, the Kryptonian hybrid threw it out into the water where it skipped several times before hitting a stone wall, taking a small chunk out of its side.

"Level with me, you had one of those nightmares, didn't you?"

"Mal, the best thing for you to do, would be to drop it."

Looking out over the water as the sun set, Mal let a few moments pass to let his teammate calm a little. "You know what I'm afraid of?"

Conner sighed.

"I'm afraid of not being needed by anyone." He looked at Conner to see if he were listening and saw his ear twitch. "It may seem pointless to you if someone needs your help, but to me it's not. You see, in high school, I was needed by my friends and it felt good to help when asked. But when I was in that pod…I wasn't needed at all. The team didn't need me, my friends at Ivy Town didn't need me, Karen didn't need me. I was just…there. I was the background. I guess that's difficult for you to understand but, since you were out of the room when I spoke to Nightwing-"

"What does this have to do with why you're here?" By his tone of voice, Conner was annoyed.

"What I'm trying to make you understand is, it was just a dream. Whatever it was you experienced was in your imagination, it wasn't real. See, one of the things I went through was being there for Karen but having her tell me she doesn't need me and to always stand behind her. But in real life, I knew she needed me even if she never admitted it. I convinced her otherwise and things have gotten better. So you see, that wasn't real, this is."

"So you're saying this is what I need to remember? It has no base in the real world? Do you have any idea why I was created?"

Mal nodded. "Nightwing told me. You are to replace Superman should he die in battle. You were also meant to kill him if he aligns himself with the bad guys. But M'gann got rid of all that mind control Lex had in you."

Conner just looked away and huffed. Nightwing had no right telling others his business just like he wouldn't like if anyone pulled the mask off his face.

"I know you're still a hot head at times but remember, we're all on the same team. We all work together to get the job done and need to be there for each other now more than ever. And if it's not that, then maybe you should go in there and talk to the girl from the red planet."

"Crossing the line, Mal," Conner said through gritted teeth.

"Conner, take it from me; it's better to have her as a friend than nothing at all, or as an enemy."

"This coming from the guy who followed his girl around like a sick puppy to get some attention from her?"

"It worked didn't it? And it's a lot better than looking at a girl from the corner of your eye you care for in some way and not doing anything about it. " Mal flashed a grin as Conner shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"Look, Con, there's four ways you can handle it, four possibilities that can happen. You can go in there and lay it all on the line, tell her everything, and see if that leads to you two getting back together. Or you can go in there and make amends as friends and go your separate ways, but those two choices involve forgiving her for trying to erase or reprogram your mind. The other two are you going in there, talking to her and telling her you just want to be friends, nothing more, and getting on with your life. But that one might put you in the same boat as Nightwing when it comes to any future girlfriends. The last one you can chose is to continue on like you have been and make yourself miserable for the rest of your life. Now I don't know her reasoning for trying what she did and that's just between you and her, but you've got to make sure whatever choice you make is the one you can live with and be a team player again. We can't fall apart, especially right now of all times."

The wind blew steadily with the Krypto-Human hybrid saying nothing as he looked the opposite way Mal was facing. The sky had turned from its yellow and orange coloring to its evening shades of blues, purples, and reds. Waves crashed along the piers as they rolled about with the smell of sea salt floating over them.

"You're not going to leave until I go back down there," Conner asked after a few moments, "are you?"

"We don't leave friends behind," Mal told him. "Especially on top of warehouses where it's kind of high to begin with."

Entering the warehouse after his time outside and having to help Mal down, Conner crossed the common area where Garfield was busy playing Skyrim and conquering a dungeon full of fighting skeletons. The young boy was so into his game, he was using his prehensile tail to pop a few puffy Cheetoes into his mouth. It wasn't until the powerhouse walked past the sofa when he paused the game.

"Hey, where've you been?" Garfield asked as he reached over to the table beside the couch and held up a video game box. "I wanted to know if you wanted to play Space Monkeys Five with me for a while."

"Maybe later, Gar." Conner looked over the warehouse and only spotted Mal who had walked into the kitchen area with his head in the refrigerator and Nightwing at the computer/TV station. He then noticed M'gann's makeshift sleep area had its curtain closed. "Is, is your sister here?"

"No, she already went back to her uncle's apartment. She said something about reviving the Ficus plant that's nearly dead." He then developed a sly smile. "Why, was there something you wanted to-"

"Go back to your game, Gar. I gotta talk to Nightwing for a bit."

The grin stayed on the green youth's face. "Kay', but do you wanna play a game afterwards?"

Seeing as he was the only one whom the youth genuinely wanted to spend time with when the Martian girl was gone, he shrugged and gave his answer. "Sure. I just need to speak to Nightwing first."

"Cool, I'll have everything ready."

Leaving the excited boy to get the game ready, Conner made his way to Nightwing who was in the middle of typing up additions to his case files.

"Nightwing," Conner said in his semi grumpy voice. "You got a minute?"

Flipping over a page of notes he was copying, the leader sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes to relieve some of the stress from them. "I suppose. What is it you want to talk about?"

Placing his hands on his hips, the hybrid looked over to where Garfield and Mal were then back to Nightwing. "It's about what you asked earlier, about what I went through in the stasis pods. If you want to know, I'll tell you."


	14. Chapter 14: Coinsides with Intervention

14.

**AN: Takes place during the gap during the episode 'Intervention' and during.**

Bialya – June 10, 23:47 EST

High in the star filled night sky, several buzzards glided above the land over Bialya. Below the animal were several heavily guarded gray buildings with metal towers at the corners. Bright circular lights searched the desert area for any sign of trouble as weapon carrying guards patrolled the perimeter with leashed Rottweiler's keeping a nose out for anything unusual. Small puffs of loose dirt trailed in their wake as the search lights kept a constant monitor on both them and the land around them.

Every so often, the guards would check in with their supervisor in order to keep all possible silence to a minimum should they be attacked. They've been attacked before and learned from those times as well as study the files provided to them by members of The Light. As always, their orders were simple, guard the warehouses from attack and deter those who attempted to do so. None however paid attention to the numerous animals that made the desert their home and failed to pay attention to one of the circling scavengers.

Breaking off from the hungry group, one of the buzzards glided over to the warehouses silently and landed on the roof. Upon touchdown, its body morphed into a smaller shape and assumed the form of a weasel as it sniffed around the air vents. The slim animal skittered from one vent to the others as it kept to the shadows and out of sight from the tower stationed guards. Coming to the edge of the first building, the weasel morphed into a flying squirrel and sailed over to the second building where it changed back into a weasel and continued its search. It wasn't until the small animal was at the third air vent when it caught the scent of what it was looking for.

"_M'gaan, I found him, going in,"_ the animal mentally relayed to its partner.

"_Good job, Gar. Just be careful when you go in. I'm fixing to move out of range in case Psymon's back and close to your position by any chance since he can detect my presence."_ Around a mile or so away, the camouflaged bioship the team used for far away missions hovered at a nearby mountain range. Its pilot, Miss Martian, sat at its controls in her black and red uniform with Wonder Girl standing by in case she needed to go out there. _"Miss Martian to Batgirl and Robin, Beast Boy's heading inside to extract our MIA team member, be ready to provide them cover if need be."_

"_Copy that, standing by,"_ Robin responded. Beside him, Batgirl was finishing rigging several devices and synching them to her wrist computer.

"Uurr, can't believe I lost my rope during our getaway." Cassie stated as she paced back and forth. "He told me to go and he'll cover me but I should have stayed behind and helped him but there were just too many for us to handle and-"

"Cassie," M'gann interrupted, "it's alright. Don't kick yourself too hard. You were just following orders."

"Yeah but, if I was more careful he wouldn't be down there and need rescuing."

"Cass, again, you were following orders and did the right thing. He made sure you got out of there with the information we needed on the scarab cave down there and gave you the opportunity to get away. That's what being on a team means, making sure your partner is taken care of and always watching their backs. And when he gets back, make sure not to mention we 'rescued' him. I would go with the term, 'liberated', myself."

Back at the second of the three warehouses, a green snake slithered through the small enclosure of the vent he was in as he slowly made his way past junction after junction. He came to a stop at each vent gate and poked his streamlined body from between the thin bars to have a look around the rooms they provided air to. The first of which housed several off duty guards on coffee break while the next one was a short hallway leading to several more small rooms with a large metal door and a red button by its side. It was safe to say that was where the scent he was following originated from.

He continued to slither down the vent, counting off each foot he journeyed in his head until he was certain he was in the other room. Despite the scent being at its strongest, Garfield was still extremely cautious to check things out just in case this was a trap. Picking the second vent on the right side, the green snake dipped a quarter of its scaly body from between the bars and looked the room over completely. Four guards, armed with rifles, were inside the mostly empty room with several crates stacked here and there while in the middle was what he was looking for.

Bound to a chair with a burlap sack over their head was his missing teammate who was captured while on a recon mission. Everything was going smoothly until their partner triggered an alarm and both were quickly outnumbered with only one of them getting away. That was two hours ago and Nightwing has had enough of his team being captured and quickly got several key members to go in after him. With the layout of the room in his mind and the positions of the captives and guards within, the snake dropped from the vent where he morphed into his monkey form before hitting the ground. He then morphed into a rat and skittered between two crates where he was cloaked in shadow.

It took longer than Garfield thought as he waited for the guards to report in. That was the down side to only having a biomorphic uniform, watches weren't included. After what seemed like an eternity, his pointed ears picked up on the first of the guards reporting all is clear followed by the second, third, then fourth. With only ten minutes to knock them out and free his teammate, he had to move fast.

Coming out of his cover, Garfield snuck behind the first of the guards and waited for his chance to strike, literally, as he morphed into an anaconda and crushed the first guard until he passed out from the pressure exerted on him. The other armed men didn't get a chance to react as the second one was smacked into several crates by a swing of the snake's mighty tail. Wood splintered under his weight and his weapon clattered to the floor. Morphing into a kangaroo, Garfield planted both his elongated feet into the chest of the third guard before transforming into a gorilla to grab and throw the final guard into the wall where he slouched unconsciously. He made sure the area was clear before morphing back to his human –monkey form.

"Oh man, that was so cool! I went Expendable on all of them and no one got a shot off!" Beast Boy happily exclaimed.

"Uh, Gar?" the captured team member said in a gruff voice.

"I knew all that ninja stealth training with Nightwing would pay off."

"Gar."

"And how fast I can morph now?"

"Gar."

"I mean, all that training with you really made me a-"

"Gar! The bag? The rope? You can untie me anytime now." The captive was just about out of patience.

"Oh, right. Sorry."

Dashing to where his teammate was still tied up, the green youth pulled the bag off their head, revealing the irritated face of Conner who had something between a frown and a look of indifference on him.

"Hey, Con," Garfield greeted cheerfully.

"Hey, Gar," the Kryptonian replied flatly. "Well this is embarrassing."

"No it's not. Just cause the clone of Superman needs rescuing by a thirteen year old after being caught behind enemy lines cause of his partner triggering the alarm, doesn't mean you have to be embarrassed."

"Gar…untie Cassie's rope please."

"But, can't I ask you a question like she did?"

The look on Conner's face nearly made Garfield laugh as it wordlessly said, 'you have got to be kidding me.'

Once free, Conner gathered up the easily excitable girl's mystical rope up and attached it to his belt. "Ugh, I hate this thing."

"Well at least it's off now. You don't have to worry about telling the truth anytime soon."

Picking up on the hint of sarcasticness in the morpher's voice as they headed for the metal door separating the storage area from where the guards were, Conner huffed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, what did you want to know?"

Stopping in his tracks, Garfield turned his head ever so slowly with a large mischievous grin on his face. It was enough to creep anyone out if they weren't used to going up against some of the world's worst criminals or alien invaders. "Where do babies come from?" he said slowly, almost menacingly.

Conner's eyes took on a questioning look as the rest of his face displayed a look of surprise and nervousness. "Um…wha…what?" He was actually at a loss for words and was finally aware of the deafening silence filling the room.

"Just kidding. Jeez, you sounded just like my mom. Now let's get out of here. Once we make it to the desert, Robin and Batgirl will detonate several smoke bombs to cover us while sis brings the bioship in to pick us up."

Conner didn't know whether to strangle the little green boy or sigh in relief. He chose the latter as he had invested too much time in training the shape shifter and it would take too long to train another. Plus, M'gann would kill him. "Well, that aside, what's the situation out there?"

"There's several rooms with guards on their coffee breaks between us and the exit. It was hard to get a count with all of them coming and going but there really wasn't that-" Before Garfield could finish, the large metal door before them activated and rolled itself up. Standing in the hallway were around twenty to thirty soldiers with rifles raised.

"Gar, did you remember to deactivate the security cameras?" Conner held his hands up with his young liberator doing the same.

"Oops." Garfield held his head down, feeling bad he had forgotten one of the most basic things to do during a rescue mission behind enemy lines.

"You two," one of the guards ordered, "get back in there and move slowly."

"Good news and bad news, Gar." Conner said flatly as he and his teammate slowly turned around. "Good news is, you'll learn from your mistake."

"What's the bad news?" Garfield asked worriedly.

"The bad news is there's only around thirty of them this time, which means they should have brought back up."

Taking off down the hall, Conner made sure to stay in front of his partner as the guard's bullets wouldn't hurt him. Bodies flew around him as he rammed those who wouldn't get out of his way and began throwing haymaker punches at the others. Seeing the Krypto-human take the lead, Garfield charged after him and morphed into a raptor. The green dinosaur pounced on three of the guards, knocking them out before joining Conner further down the hall.

As the super strong male member of the team continued to fight, one of the guards thought it would be a good idea to leap on his back and bury a tazor in his chest. After giving a grunt of pain, Conner backed up into the wall in an attempt to crush his foe but didn't have enough momentum to do so. With that idea scrapped, he grabbed hold of the guard's legs and fell to his back. The resulting move knocked the air out of the tazor wielding man and provided Conner an opportunity to deliver a knockout punch to his head.

"Conner!" Garfield yelled.

With his partner's attention on him, Garfield leapt at him with an outstretched hand. Taking hold of him, the powerhouse flung the youth at the others and watched as he morphed into a large green triceratops. Men yelled as their bullets failed to penetrate the creature's thick frilled head. They soon went flying with the prehistoric creature crashing through the door, providing the duo an unobstructed way out.

Away from the escape, Robin and Batgirl searched for any sign of Beast Boy and Superboy. A large amount of dust was being kicked up at the guarded warehouses but they couldn't tell what was going on.

"Batgirl, are all the traps set?" Robin asked as he increased the magnification on his binoculars.

"All are set," Batgirl replied. "As soon as they're in range I'll activate them and we'll have cover to get out of here."

"Well it doesn't look like we have to wait for long." Zooming in on two distant individuals, Robin's optical enhancers brought up thumbnails of Beast Boy and Superboy as they ran towards the evac point. Tracer rounds flew around them from the shots the perusing guards took but none hit their mark.

"Activating cover in three, two, one, now." With the press of a button on her wrist mounted hollow computer, dozens of explosions occurred behind the escaping duo as well as around Batman's two protégé's. _"M'gann, evac now!"_

The moment Conner and Garfield reached Batgirl and Robin; the bioship came in and opened its rear cargo hatch. Robin was the first one in with Beast Boy being the second as he had assumed the form of a hawk. Conner dashed in as Batgirl followed close behind. Once the hatch was sealed, the ship took off with a trail of kicked up dust following in its wake. As the dust settled, the pursuing soldiers watched as the ship climbed into the sky and disappear over the mountains.

"Sir, should we follow in the helicopters?" one of the guards asked.

"Negative.," their leader answered. "We did our part. Queen Bee's orders were to allow them to escape should they show up again."

"But what if they come back for the temple?" another guard asked.

"We do the same. Queen Bee's orders…and The Lights."

Aboard the bioship, Garfield and Conner made their way into the cockpit area behind the two heroes from Gotham.

"That was so cool!" Garfield expressed. "We took care of everyone that came our way that tried to stop us. We so need a team name."

"Team name?" Conner asked with a slightly raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, we are totally, um…Team Superbeast!"

The taller of the two simply stood in silence, grateful Robin, Batgirl, and the others couldn't overhear the suggested name. "O…kay."

"Come on, you like the name. It's…crash."

"You've been hanging around Bart too much, haven't you?"

"Eh, maybe a little."

As Conner made his way to the front of the ship, he was surprised when a pair of arms wrapped around his waist. "Uh, Gar?"

"I'm just glad we got you out of there."

With the youth still hugging him, Conner frantically looked back and forth to make sure no one was checking on what was taking them so long. "Um, Gar? You can let go now. Gar? Gar?"

Letting out a huff, the veteran team member awkwardly patted the young boy twice on the shoulder and was relieved when he released his grip.

"Knew you'd come around."

Rolling his eyes, Conner followed the shape shifter to the front of the ship when Cassie flew right up to the Kryptinian once she saw him and stopped him from going any further. "Conner, I'm so sorry I left you, it's just you ordered me too, and I had to follow your orders, and my rope was tangled up in several guards where I couldn't get it back before I left so I had to leave it behind, and-"

Unhooking the rope from his belt, Conner handed it back to her but was careful to not get it wrapped around his hand and have its effects take hold of him again. "I gave you an order and you followed it." He watched as she happily took it back then headed to take a seat. "Hate that thing."

"Thanks. Um…can you please not tell Wonder Woman about this?"

"Not a word."

"So, how'd I do on my first solo mission?" Garfield asked his blood sister after giving her a hug.

"You did great, Gar," M'gann answered, "mission success. There's another one coming up and since you've shown you can hold your own, I think it's time for you to be back on Alpha team." The excited smile on the youth's face more than showed his thanks.

"But just one thing," Robin cut in. "How were they alerted to what you were doing in there?"

Scratching the back of his head as he looked at the masked teen, Garfield flashed an embarrassed smile. "Well…I-"

"He took out all the guards in the warehouse one by one then untied me," Conner broke in. "I then tripped another alarm by accident on our way out and alerted the others to what was happening."

The ship grew silent with Garfield having a surprised look on his face as Conner never covered for anyone. A buzzing broke the silence as a cell phone rang on vibrate, causing the Krypo-hybrid to grab the device from the dashboard beside him and check his just delivered text message.

"You took them all out?" Batgirl asked Garfield, astonished. "Oh it's more than time you hang with the big boys."

June 13, 21:16 EST

Alone in her bioship, M'gann piloted the otherworldly craft to Poseidonis, home of L'gaan, where he was currently recovering from his broken leg. This was a long time coming. Since learning the truth about the deep cover mission when she mind ripped Kaldur and discovering Artemis was still alive, everything was clear. The discovery of such a power she controlled and continued usage of it blinded her to what she was doing. Seeing the devastation it caused first hand finally pulled back the curtain obstructing her vision.

Conner had been right about her abusing her powers. Just because she could forcibly rip the information she needed from the enemy, didn't give her the right to, regardless of what the end means were or whatever she told herself. She finally understood how badly she had hurt her ex by trying to erase a small portion of his memory but that didn't compare to what she was unintentionally teaching Garfield. Although she never told him it was okay to cross the line when it called for it and never would tell him to venture down that path, her actions showed him otherwise. She was certain if his mother were still alive, she too would be severely disappointed and angered with her.

All this time alone allowed her to think more, as if her time aboard the personal sub of Black Manta wasn't enough. She thought back to last week when she felt close to her old self for a moment. The team was in need of some time off to take their minds from the fighting and threats surrounding them, if even for a moment. It had been Nightwing who had mentioned a Bar-B-Q behind the warehouse and it had been Garfield and Bart who second and thirded the idea.

It had been a clear sky day with the team, part of them anyway, relaxing with the rays of the sun warming them. A large grill was loaded with patties, hot dogs, steaks, ears of corn, and other selected vegetables. Long picnic tables lined the side of the warehouse with bowls of chips, dip, and other finger foods as makeshift benches made of wood planks and cinderblocks held those looking for a seat with another table full of condiments and a radio sat nearby.

Everyone took shifts as they joined the others outside or monitored the computer and League communications should an emergency pop up. The only thing that popped up was Blue Beetle flying around and playing hero even though he was now a member of The Reach. News reports had him engaged in Gotham where he took down the Scarecrow and was now heading for Metropolis. Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl took offense to his presence in their city but chose not to intervene as a plan was currently being developed.

"Oh man, I need food!" Bart exclaimed as he exited the warehouse and zoomed over to the tables. "My stomach's so off mode I don't think I could run to the boarder and back in less than three minutes. Where's the burgers?"

As Bart went in search for food, his partner who kept watch with him entered the outdoor eating area with a broken paddle ball in hand. It looked as if they were on their last nerve as they threw the toy as far away as they could.

"Um, Conner?" Cassie asked. "Is something wrong?"

Looking over the group outside, sans Mal and Karen who were now on watch duty, Conner sneered. "Who…gave him…a paddleball…toy?"

No one moved an inch from where they stood or sat as the Kryptonian seethed.

"Who…gave Bart…the paddleball?"

"Conner, calm down," M'gann told him as she turned from the table where the drinks sat.

"Do you have any idea what hearing someone count to one million while paddling a rubber ball for the last hour sounds like?"

M'gann desperately tried to keep herself from laughing at his irritation as with the others.

"No, but I take it you do," came a familiar voice.

The sound of the voice only served to make Conner more agitated. "Who invited you?"

Smirking mockingly, L'gaan, who wore a plastic boot on his leg, gave his response. "Why would I need a reason to see my Angelfish?" The Atlantian made sure to emphasize the word 'my'.

Tightening his fists to make his knuckles pop, Conner gave the fish boy a death glare that came close to rivaling Batman's. Since what he said to Garfield and taking that cheap shot on him months ago, he had been itching to finish what he started and put fin head in his place.

Sensing the aggression in the air between the two teammates, Nightwing stepped in and let it be known the food was ready. Asking his girlfriend to help him to his feet, more to egg on Conner than anything, L'gaan wrapped an arm around her shoulders as the two went to get their plates. He couldn't help himself, the opportunity was there and he had to take it. Training with Garfield, Conner not only taught him a thing or two about fighting, but he himself was taught how to loosen up a little. So when the hybrid was a few feet behind the couple, he turned back and threw the pink rubber ball he still had from the toy, and ricochet it off the warehouse where it bounced back and beaned L'gaan in the back of the head. Had it not have been for M'gann's name being called by Garfield, she never would have seen the whole thing.

Feigning innocence and blaming it on a passing bird when L'gaan accused him of hitting him, Conner continued ahead as the Martian hid a smile from the Atlantian next to her. Garfield wasn't so nonchalant about it as he let out a hearty laugh.

After grabbing a burger, Conner made his way over to the table full of condiments where M'gann was busy applying slices of tomato to her food. Maybe it was coincidence, maybe it was just some cosmic conundrum, or maybe it was a certain green boy and a masked female bat that had nothing to do but troll after the two when Don Henley's second verse to 'Boys of Summer' came on over the radio.

As the song played, the two caught sly glances at each other, much to a certain fin headed team member's disdain, and only separated once the chorus began and they noticed what they were doing. It was as if the song was speaking for them and those few moments of having their eyes meet had her feeling like her old self. She actually came close to saying her catchphrase, "Hello Megan" when she realized they had been staring at each other for too long.

With Poseidonis coming into view, M'gann snapped out of her memory. That part of herself, the catchphrase, was another part of her she had forgotten. She had stopped saying that when L'gaan told her it was annoying and had her stop saying when he was around, although she did let it slip once. She inhaled deeply and shook her head as she let the air out. It was time to end this part of her life, which now that she had her eyes reopened, was a mistake. She docked the ship beside a bed of coral, formed gills on her neck, and exited the ship.

**AN: Two more eps left…TWO! Hoping they are the best of the second season and have everything wrapped up nicely. And now…**

**Glad Blue Beetle's back with the team, awesome.**

**Cool seeing more Bat action this week.**

**Hope I'm right but I'm thinking they might bring in the whole team, past and present, in for the last episode.**

**Bring Conner back and have him kick all kinds of ass!**

**Please…no more fish face!**

**Was I the only one laughing when fin boy's ass got dumped? I like to think not.**

**Should I continue this after the show with a spin off? I'm tempted to make fish face into Trident from Teen Titans and targeting 'select' members of the team. Just look at the similarities between the two characters.**

**And I know most of you peeps want Conner and M'gann to get back to together and in all seriousness, that's how I feel it may end up as the whole Wendy thing won't work due the whole Conner never looking old thing. Fine, I hope it ends with them hooking back up; I'm a sap for happy endings like that. Don't judge me!**


	15. Chapter 15: After Summit

15.

**AN: One more ep left in the series. Here's a three part entry to Breather that will be updated tomorrow and the next day. Let's roll.**

**Blüdhaven – Warehouse Base**

"That was so cool!" Garfield yelled as the team entered their warehouse base in Blüdhaven.

"Off the mode, compadre!" Bart added.

It had been a short while since the team basically destroyed the plans of The Light and The Reach at the same time. Months of planning and countless secrets have finally led to a victory worth having, something Conner told Nightwing to lead them to several months ago. One by one, the heroes made their way to a seat in the common area, feeling the aftermath of their long awaited win. Drinks were passed around, congratulations were given, thanks were exchanged, and food was spread out on the tables. Everyone could finally kick their feet up and relax.

"I want to raise a toast," Wally said as he took his goggles and head covering off. "To Kaldur and Nightwing. Through perhaps the darkest times we have ever been through and for pulling us out. Despite the secrets, betrayed feelings, and close calls, we have shown when we are together, nothing can take us down. We are and need to continue what we have. And to Artemis for backing them up when they really needed it."

"And for those we have lost along the way," Nightwing stated. "Jason Todd."

"Ted Chord," Jaime added.

"Tula," Kaldur spoke.

"Marie Logan," said Garfield. "My mom." M'gann wrapped an arm around him and gave him a hug.

"To those who have fallen, risen, who are here and not here, this is for them and us. Once part of the team, always part of the team," Wally finished.

Everyone raised their cans of cola and saluted all Wally and the others spoke of. A moment for those who were not present was held before they began to speak again.

"So how does it feel to have the original team back together?" Batgirl asked Nightwing as they stood to the side of the TV.

"Great." He looked over at Wally, Kaldur, Artemis, M'gann, and Conner, all where up to different things. "Almost like old times."

"What differences are there?"

He took a sip of his Coke. "Kaldur was the leader. He still acts like he used to but since Tula, it's like a light has dimmed in his eyes. Wally and Artemis would always bicker. It was great listening to some of the things they came up with for insults until they finally got together. Seriously, the tension between them was thick. Conner was more angry than he is now. M'gann was new to Earth and as such was more naive. They made a great team when they were an item, secret and not secret. Something tells me they'll always work great together. We started this team as three friends, a clone, and a Martian. We became a family with our differences making us stronger. And now, it feels as if we're moving on and handing the reigns over to the next generation."

"You think their ready though?" Batgirl asked as she looked over the newer recruits.

"Some are a little rough around the edges, but overall, I think they'll do just fine."

"Hey, Robin number uno!" Wally called. "Get over here and listen to this. You're protégé wants to know about our first mission as a six man team."

Joining the others around the main commons table, Nightwing and Batgirl came up behind Robin. "You know about our first mission. You read the files."

"I don't mean your first official mission The League gave you," Robin said. "I mean your first mission as a team."

"I'm not sure I follow you."

"I think I do." Moving closer to the center of the couch, Wally took a drink then leaned forward. "First of all, it was all Nightwing's fault at what happened in that restaurant."

"Restaurant?" Nightwing pondered. "You mean On the Border?"

"Yep. Our first official unofficial mission as a team of six. Also known as The original and best."

The newbies rolled their eyes at Wally's remark and groand as if saying 'yeah, right'.

"Oh no," Nightwing countered, "that was so your fault. You recommended it."

"But you were field leader, remember? You just had to be the big man of the team. Which is ironic cause you were so short at the time."

"I was shortest cause I was the youngest."

"No you weren't, you were the toddler of the team. Conner's the baby."

"What?" Conner asked as the others snickered at him. He stood at the back of the room with his gloves off as he looked for another shirt to replace his current torn one.

"Get your Kryptonian butt over here." Artemis ordered as she took a seat on the couch's arm rest next to M'gann.

Taking a shirt out from a bag with several others, Conner ripped the price tag off the sleeve and ventured to where the rest of the team was as he drunk his root beer.

"Does he always have to do that?" L'gaan asked no one in particular.

"You mean walk around without a shirt on and flex his muscles while putting it on?" Mal asked. "What do you think? He was worse in high school, though sometimes, I think he does it on purpose."

"Well he needs to sto-" Causing the fish-human to stop talking, Batgirl, Cassie, and Karen each smacked the back of his head.

"Triple head smack, three hundred points, for the ladies," Bart said as Conner took a seat beside Wally while Nightwing sat next on the other armrest. Kaldur took position behind them as he leaned on the back of the couch.

"If I remember correctly," Artemis said. "It was actually Conner's fault for the whole mess in the first place."

"What are you talking about?" the Krypto-human asked.

"Our mission to On the Border after I joined."

"That wasn't my fault, that was yours."

"Was not. You were the one with the pitcher."

"You could've told me what it was."

And you were the one who corrupted our Martian." Wally pressed. "But the aftermath was sweet."

"Like I said, someone should have told me what it was." Conner took a drink of his root beer as M'gann blushed from remembering what Artemis and Wally were referring to.

"As I remember it," Kaldur broke in. "It was more Wally and Nightwing, and Artemis' fault we got in that mess."

"Oh yes, blame it on the land dwellers," Wally sarcastically said.

"So what about your first mission?" Cassie asked. "I wanna hear this."

"Well, before I tell you anything," Wally said. "I have to warn you all. This story contains scenes of a very hungry and very attractive speedster, i.e. me, a rambunctious merman, a drunk Martian, an archer with an attitude, an evil little bird, and one very confused klepto-Kryptonian who was also drunk by the way and is most entertaining to watch. Now, where to begin…"


	16. Chapter 16

16.

Happy Harbor – August 9th, Team's first year.

Within the mountain The League had given the team, all six members sat idly around with nothing to do. They had finished with their mission to protect a scientist named, Dr. Serling Roquette from being assassinated as well as stopping a Nano infused fog capable of destroying a city within minutes, or Wayne Tech as the case may have been for Robin and Superboy that night.

The day started out as normal with breakfast, weapons training for those carrying them, sparring for those without weapons, and finally a team skirmish to see how they worked with their new member, Artemis. It seemed Wally was the only one incapable of working with her, causing his team of himself, Superboy, and Artemis to lose the skirmish.

"Come on, you really ate all the Cheetos?!" Artemis yelled at Wally who finished stuffing his mouth with the orange sticks. A towel was draped around her neck from taking a shower and she was back to wearing her civilian clothing.

"Mumpgh mmumm umphmth gumpgh," the speed demon, who was still in uniform, said through a mouthful of the snack as he sat on the sofa.

Letting out an irritated grunt and rolling her eyes, the team's new archer threw her hands up then went to check what was in the refrigerator as Kaldur made his way into the kitchen to grab a bottled water. He was still slightly damp from the showers and had a headache from the blonde and redhead's bickering. He popped two aspirin in his mouth and drank them down.

"You ate all my ice cream too?" Artemis yelled.

"You know I can't resist chocolate chip cookie dough," Wally told her. He then laughed as he tilted his head back and dumped the remaining crumbs in his mouth.

"I don't know anything about you!"

"And with that attitude, you never will, Blondie."

"Attitude? You want attitude? How about an arrow up your butt for attitude?"

"Like you could. You're too slow. It'll be a cold day in – OW"

Grabbing the back of his head, Wally rubbed the spot where something hard hit him. Looking behind the sofa, he saw a half drunken bottle of water rolling away and a smirking Artemis with her arms crossed. Kaldur had face palmed as she thanked the Atlantian for the ballistic.

"Congrats, Atrtemis," Robin said with a cackle as he entered the living area. "You are now the only other one of us to bean a speedster."

"Whose side are you on?" Wally questioned.

"My own."

"Hey guys," M'gann said as she flew in to join the others. "What's everyone doing?"

"Gearing up for a supply run since Kid Bottomless Pit ate everything in sight," Artemis told her.

"That's not true," Wally rebutted. "I left the expired sour cream for you." He then grinned mischievously. "It ssssssoooooooooo goes with your charming personality.

"Why do people eat that stuff anyway?" Robin asked. "When cream goes sour, isn't it time to throw it away?"

The last to join the rest of the team was Conner as he walked in drying his hair with a towel. He didn't notice the others staring at him and smelling the air until he turned to head into the kitchen area. "What?"

"Someone smells good," Wally teased.

"What?"

"Superboy?" Robin spoke up with a grin. "Um, what did you use in the shower just now?"

"Something M'gann gave me," Superboy told him. "I was out of soap."

"You do know you smell like a girl, don't you?" Wally asked with a snicker.

"M'gann, what scent do you give him?" Artemis asked.

"My Butterfly Flower scented shower gel," the Martian answered innocently. "Why? I thought it smells good."

"M'gann, that's the most girliest of girlie girl scents they make!" Artemis as well as the others began to laugh at the unfortunate hybrid's predicament.

"You smelt like a girl?" Garfield laughed. "Oh man, that's great!"

"Knew you had a soft spot." Karen said as she and Mal laughed.

"It was a onetime thing," Conner stated as he crossed his arms and leaned back, his face turned a light shade of red. "Never used it again."

"Um, I remember one other time you smelled like that," Nightwing said before taking another drink. "You and M'gann came out of the showers at the same time too," he muttered so no one else could hear him except for Conner who hid a grin. He then dead-legged the masked man with his elbow, making him spit up his drink a little.

"So what happened with your mission to the restaurant?" Jamie asked. "We wanna know."

"Well," Wally said, "we all came to the conclusion we were hungry. The League had told us to stay in the mountain until further notice, and since we were the type to always mind the rules, we decided to run an undercover mission to procure sustenance. So, with a ticked off archer, a cackling bird boy, a head aching Atlantian, a happy go lucky Martian, and a feminine smelling super clone, got ready to strike out for the only reason people from around the world come to America for, Mexican food. It only took me about two minutes to get showered and dressed. I sorta tripped while undressing and gave myself a black eye after hitting the corner of the sink, which is what took me so long."

"Taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco, taco," Wally repeatedly said as the team sat on a bus on their way into town. His swollen eye was becoming a sickening black, purple, and blue mess.

"You just ate a gallon of ice cream and a full bag of Cheetos," Artemis said to the hyper speedster. "Calm down until we get to the restaurant."

"Hyper metabolism, Artemino. Gotta keep eating to recharge my speed powers. And why am I telling you anyways? You're a rook and took Roy's spot on the team." He then felt a sharp jab at his side and looked down to see a loaded crossbow with the end of an arrow poking him. "Where did you hide that?"

"Why do you think I always wear a jacket?"

"Enough you two," Kaldur told them. "We cannot ill afford to be caught by Batman or The League least we be punished."

"Excuse me," Robin said as he leaned in close to the three, "I believe I'm in charge of this mission, so do as I say, shut up, and you won't find something wrong with your uniforms when we go on our next mission."

"Like what?" Artemis asked.

"Just go along with it," Wally told her. "Last time he did that, he filled my suit with itching powder and I was stuck like that all mission long."

Around ten minutes later, the six teens arrived at a shopping center and exited the bus. Each one wore civilian garb with Kaldur and Conner sticking out more than they usually would. Wally and Robin dressed similar in baggy jeans, graphic t-shirts with their mentor's symbols on them, and sneakers with Robin wearing his usual sunglasses. Artemis added a jacket to what she wore earlier, a green shirt and faded blue jeans while M'gann, now Megan, wore a blue denim skirt with a white shirt and blue denim half jacket. Kaldur wore a pair of baggy khaki pants to hide his calf fins with slip on closed toed sandals to hide his webbed feet. Conner had on his usual blue cargo pants and boots, but his shirt was a white version of his regular black and red shield shirt. He also wore his brown leather jacket over it.

"Okay," Robin said as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "now before we go in, let me just say we are undercover from The League so keep a low profile. Also, lunch is on me. So anything you want, get it."

"How very nice of you, Robs." Wally slung an arm around his shorter friend and pulled him away from the others while whispering, "You sure you want to do this? You know who will get upset when he-"

"Wall, when has he ever gotten mad at me. I'm golden, man. Untouchable."

The group entered On the Border and were soon seated at a table, which was two pushed together, and placed drink orders as well as appetizers. Wally had the indignity of sitting next to Artemis as Robin and Kaldur sat across from them and M'gann was making sure she sat beside Superboy. Each looked over their menus with Kaldur, Conner, and M'gann's eyes practically bugging out when they saw all the food to choose from.

"It all looks so good," M'gann said as she stared at all the pictures of the food. "What do you recommend, Wally?"

"Me of course, Megalicious."

"I think she means food, Speed Bump," Artemis told him.

"I have an idea, why don't we all order the build your own combos, pick different things, and try a little off each person's plate?" Robin suggested. That way we can have a taste of everything.

"I'm game," Wally told him. The others all agreed as well. "But we also need to get these three to try some other things also."

After their appetizers were served and orders placed, the teens started to dig in to the nachos, chips, stuffed jalapeños, and hot sauce. The first things to be finished were the nachos followed by the jalapeños. M'gann wasn't used to the spiciness of the green peppers and shot gunned her tea as well as Conner's Sprite. He in turn drank an entire saucer of picante sauce and didn't see what the big deal was. When the waitress didn't come back to refill their drinks, the Krypto-human went in search for something else to wet his whistle.

"We're out of cheese dip already?" Artemis asked.

"We can't be it was nearly…M'gann?!" With wide eyes behind his glasses, Robin stared at the human passing Martian as she drank the entire bowl of cheese. "You weren't supposed to drink it; you dip your chips in it."

"Oh, I'm sorry." She sat the bowl down, not knowing what to do and let out a small burp and slapped her hand over her mouth out of embarrassment as her cheeks deeply reddened.

"We'll just order another one," Robin said with a reassuring smile.

As the others went back to eating and drinking, Conner sat back down with a large pitcher in hand. "Got another drink," he told M'gann.

"What is it?" She looked the concoction over and felt how cold it was.

"I don't know. I asked for another sprite when a guy put it on a long table where I was waiting and no one took it, so I guess it was for me." He took a sip and snapped his head back as the ice cold drink hit the back of his throat. "It tastes like one of those slurpees Wally got me once."

Taking a drink herself, M'gann reacted the same way Conner did and smacked her lips. "I tastes different, but I like it. And why is there salt around the edges?"

Raising the pitcher up, Conner licked some of the salt and took another drink. "It, it makes it taste better." The two then grabbed the salt shakers to pour on more and sucked down the frozen green drink.

It wasn't long for the group to receive their meals and enjoy the various food choices they made. Wally couldn't help but make a crack about Kaldur's fish tacos and how it could be seen as cannibalism. He almost wound up with two black eyes for that one. All through the meal, Robin cackled as his best friend and Artemis fought over an order of fajitas large enough for the table. Kaldur couldn't get enough of the little finger foods known as empanadas or the fried rice. It wasn't until after they were finished eating when they noticed several large pitchers taking up room at their table and two of their friends looking a little out of it.

"M'gann?" Artemis asked the Martian. "Are you feeling well?"

"Where did those pitchers come from?" Robin asked.

"Those slurpees were good but it's hot in here," M'gann said as she leaned on Conner's shoulder and looked up at him with lidded eyes. "And he's hot too."

"I could go for another one." Reaching for the closest pitcher, Conner downed the remaining bit and slammed it down carelessly, causing the plastic handle to break off. "Aww, Sup (hiccup) Superman's not gonna like that." He then snickered at what he had done.

"Oh snap," Wally said as his skin paled. "Where did those come from?"

"I do not understand," Kaldur said as he looked at the pitchers and picked one up. "What did they drink?"

"Kaldur, put that down!" Artemis ordered in a whisper. "That's a margarita pitcher. These two are drunk off their rockers!"

"How many did they drink?" Robin asked.

Counting the empty containers, Kaldur looked back at the boy. "Seven."

"Artemis, get M'gann and Conner out of here as quietly as you can. Wally, try to distract the hostess so she can get them out the building. Kaldur, get rid of the pitchers somehow and I'll take care of the check." On Robin's orders, they all moved out.

"Come on you two, let's go." Picking up both teammates by the arms, Artemis waited for Wally to flirt with the waitress and snuck them to the door with only minimal suspicion.

"Hey Superboy!" M'gann yelled even though the powerhouse was just on the other side of Artemis. "It sure is hot in here!"

"I want another green slurpee!" Superboy yelled then pointed at M'gann. "And she's hot!"

The Martian blushed, not knowing he was referring to her complaint about the temperature and instead took it as how she looked to him. Everyone in the restaurant turned and stared at the three exiting teens as Artemis grinned and laughed nervously.

After taking care of the bill and hiding the illegal drinks for minors under the table, Robin grabbed Wally as Kaldur followed close behind. He speedster moaned as he only had six of the girl's seven digits. When they got to the parking lot, they grew panicky as the first three were nowhere to be seen.

"Artemis?!" Robin yelled as they looked around.

"Oh man," Wally wined. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted her like that. She probably kidnapped them both and took them back to her lair of ninja assassins to torture and kill them."

"Shut up, Kid Idiot!" Artemis said as she came up behind them.

"Artemis, what happened?" Kaldur asked.

"Well, I got them both out and had to stop Conner from ogling this girl and telling her to try the green slurpees. M'gann got upset that he wasn't paying attention to her and when I turned around, she did the whole disappearing thing then Conner ran off somewhere and I had to explain to a family she was a magician and that he had an inner ear infection." She then pointed at the remaining boys. "You owe me restitution!"

"Okay, don't panic, we got this. We can handle this." Robin said as he began to panic. "We have two drunken aliens-"

"One alien, one half alien," Wally corrected.

"Right, right, one alien and one half alien. We can find them. We have to find them. Or you all die."

"What?"

"Wally, I'm protected. Batman won't kill me, but you guys…have my condolences."

"Let us just start looking for them," Kaldur suggested. "We need to calm down and find them before something bad happens."

"Right, right," Robin said as he paced back and forth. "Keep calm and get traught, right. Wally, Artemis, you two look for M'gann. Kaldur and I will go after Superboy."

"Why do I get stuck with the criminal?" Wally asked when he got elbowed by the blonde.

"I'm not a criminal, moron! Stop with all the hate!" Artemis yelled at the top of her lungs as she pulled out her crossbow and aimed it at his head.

"Artemis, ease down, put the crossbow away, and come with me instead. Wally, shut up, and go with Kaldur," Robin ordered. "We need to find them. It's three twenty three and the bus picks up at five fifteen. We need to be at the cave by six, which means we have a little more than an hour and a half to find them and get to the bus stop. Add about fifteen minutes bus time and we should be back by five thirty with a half hour to pump coffee in them and sober them up. Oh, and if you get the chance, use your phones to video tape everything."

The four broke off into their teams and went in search for their drunken comrades.


	17. Chapter 17

17.

"Okay, so let me get this straight," Mal said as Wally took a break and drunk his third can of orange soda. "While you four were eating, none of you paid attention to Conner as he kept getting pitcher after pitcher of margarita drinks?"

"Have you seen Wally eat?" Nightwing asked. "It's disgustingly hypnotic."

"Wally's disgustingly hypnotic when eating?" Bart said through his laughter. "Wall-man, we are so related!"

"And it was not easy trying to keep Wally and Artemis from killing each other as they ate," Kaldur told them. "To this day, I will never figure out where she keeps so many arrows and crossbows in her jacket."

"It's an archer thing." Artemis patted him on the shoulder. "You wouldn't understand."

"What I want to know is, what did the girl Conner hit on look like and why did M'gann got so jealous he wasn't hitting on her." Batgirl asked as the Martian blushed slightly.

"In his defense, the girl looked like M'gann's human form, only with a lighter hair color." Artemis answered. "And a skimpy black dress."

"Guess we know what Superboy likes," Robin whispered to Jamie as the two laughed.

"And under the table was the best place you could hide the empties?" Bart asked. "Not even close to being crash."

"I really did not know what to do," Kaldur answered. "It was all I could think of."

"Hey Wally, you ever get that girl's last number?" Jamie asked.

"No, unfortunately after I went back I found out we were banned from ever eating there again," the redhead answered.

"Unfortunately?" Artemis asked.

"Um, you know, unfortunate at the time. Cause that was then and this…this is now. And I'm with you. And I'm obligated-"

"Watch it." Patting her holstered crossbow, Artemis gave him a sly grin.

"Oh, enough with your flirting," Cassie broke in.

"Yeah, what happened next?" Garfield asked.

"Where could she be?" Artemis asked out loud, more to the universe then her partner, as she and Robin searched the area around the shopping center. She rolled her eyes at what some of the young women her age were saying as they concentrated on makeup and jewelry. To her, that kind of stuff came second when she had other things to do like patrol at night and bring criminals down.

"Okay," Robin stated, "we've been around the clothing shops, the fragrance stores, Bed Bath and Beyond, which would make sense with the beyond part and her being Martian, but I'm running out of places to loo-"

Hitting him like a particular Clown Prince of Crime's trick punching glove pistols, Robin came to a stop. "The statues!"

"What?" Artemis asked when she saw her partner stop suddenly. "What is it?"

"The green statues on the other side of the center. I bet she's over there thinking they're Martians like her."

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Only one way to find out."

Dashing across the parking lot, with a few horns honking at them, Robin and Artemis ran as fast as they could while leaping and tumbling over several parked vehicles in their way, until finally arriving at a large bookstore. A number of green, man sized, sculptures of famous authors and other important historical figures, with people paying them no mind whatsoever, stood in front of the building with a few sitting on benches as if reading a novel. The two hurried to each one when they found their auburn haired Martian in disguise staring hard at one of the figures.

"M'gann?" Artemis asked as her and Robin, who pulled out his camera phone, walked up to her. "M'gann, are you okay?"

"Shhh," the Martian girl told her.

"Miss M?" Robin carefully said. "What are you doing?"

"I almost got him."

"Got who?"

"Almost."

The archer and acrobat stared at the girl and the statue for a moment when M'gann finally moved and rubbed her eyes.

"Agh, you win again my friend. You're good at this. Best four out of seven?" She then went back to staring at the statue of Edgar Allen Poe with a ridiculous determined look on her face.

"Cripes," Artemis said unbelievably. "She's having a staring contest with a statue."

Taking the Martian by the arm, Robin very carefully moved her away from it. "M'gann? We need to go now. You can play with your friend later."

Laughing softly, M'gann leaned into his ear. "Shh, don't tell him, but I think he cheats at this game." She looked back at the statue and laughed again. "And I think he likes Artemis."

"Oh yeah, she needs an IV full of coffee, stat," Artemis told her teammate.

As the trio hurried off, M'gann broke their hold on her and turned back around to face a statue of Winston Churchill as she waived. "By Uncle J'onn. See you later."

Groaning with embarrassment, Robin and Artemis grabbed their teammate by the arms and drug her away quickly as people gave them awkward looks.

Over on the other side of the center, Wally and Kaldur searched high and low for Superboy but were having no luck. Robin had just called, telling them about finding M'gann and to meet up with them at the bus stop incase anything should happen. They were immediately cut off when they saw M'gann using her telekinesis to pick up the sagging pants of several teenagers walking by. Robin and Artemis had to bring her to a stop as the boys found themselves face first in the dirt as she lifted their garments a little too forcefully and laughed heartily. Not long after that, the team of Wally and Kaldur heard loud, gruff yelling at one of the stores not too far from their position.

"I think we found our Supey," Wally said as he and Kaldur hurried to where the ruckus was.

Coming up to a toy store, Kaldur and Wally couldn't believe what they were seeing with the redhead quickly grabbing his phone to start recording what was happening. Outside the business was a statue of Superman standing proudly with his back straight, chest out, and hands on his hips. A confident smile was on his face as he looked up into the sky.

"…And you never have anything to say to me!" Superboy yelled at the lifeless Superman. "And…and you're mean and…stupid with bad hair…I hate (hiccup) hate you, you…dummy!"

"Dude, I think we need to get him out of here fast before someone calls the cops." Wally told Kaldur who simply nodded.

The two went to attempt to pull their super strong teammate away from the statue when he had another outburst.

"So what if I'm a clone? I'm just like you and don't need you any (hiccup) any (hiccup) any (hiccup) anyways!" Superboy stumbled backwards then took two wobbly steps forward again as people around him stared. "I don't care if you're Superman or Stupidman or, or, Somethingman. You ever come at me again and I'll beat you down! What do have to say for yourself now? Huh?!"

Wally couldn't help himself and zipped up behind the statue. "Supey, you are a huge disappointment and I don't like you, a monkey could do a better job than you," he said in a deep voice.

"I'll teach you!" Winding up, Superboy threw a haymaker at the head of the statue, completely knocking it off and sending it sailing into a nearby fountain. He blinked several times and looked closely where the sculpture's cranium was. "Aww, I…I'm…I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!"

Kaldur stood by silently with his jaw hanging wide open as Wally laughed up a storm on the floor when Superboy hugged the statue.

"Wally, get up." Kaldur ordered the laughing teen. "Um, nothing to see here ladies and gentlemen, he's a…a uh…an actor for our school and he was rehearsing a skit. Please, move along. Move along."

"It's just I hate monkeys," Superboy continued. "They throw (hiccup), throw (hiccup), throw their poo and won't shut up. But the robot ones are the worst."

"Dude, thank the deity upstairs for his half human side cause I'm so loving this!" Wally had recorded everything as Superboy begged the statue for forgiveness after 'killing' it when Kaldur gently drug him away.

After finally meeting back at the bus stop bench, the sober four kept their eyes on the two drunkies until the bus arrived. The entire time they waited, the two began laughing their heads off for some unknown reason and were only getting louder with each passing minute.

"Anyone else being creeped out that Superboy's laughing?" Wally asked.

"Seriously disturbing," Robin commented. "And I thought my cackle was creepy, especially in the dark."

"This truly is the stuff of nightmares."

"If this is the type of things you guys do on a regular basis," Artemis said while laughing at their predicament, "I'm so on this team."

With their attention on the two in front of them, none saw a group of kids across the street running around with their toys following them. The girl's plastic ponies gave rides to the boy's GI Joes as they 'attacked' the kids with their missile launchers and climbed up their clothing to do battle with each other. It wasn't until Robin heard the cries for help when they turned and saw what M'gann was doing that caused her and Superboy to laugh so much.

"Oh my," Kaldur barely said as he looked on with wide eyes. Two of the GI Joes wrapped one of the kids up as a pony tried to, unsuccessfully, trample the child.

"Dude, Small Soldiers flashback," Wally commented as another three Joes had a sword fight on a girl's head. "Neat." He clicked a few pictures with his phone.

"Toy Story from hades," added Artemis who then began to laugh again. The remaining ponies were being used to pull the kids limbs off with string tied around their necks. There was no danger as they were too weak to do anything.

Shaking his head in his hands, Robin sighed tiredly. "Those kids are gonna need so much therapy."

When the bus finally arrived, as well as the kid's parents who destroyed the toys, the four helped the over buzzed duo to the back of the bus as they kept snickering. Kaldur and Artemis sat in front of them to provide somewhat of a cover from curious glances as Wally and Robin tried to keep them awake. They really didn't feel like having to carry them from the bus to their mountain base.

"You're cute," M'gann told Superboy with a drunken giggle.

"You're still (hiccup) hot," he said back.

"Not like earlier."

"That wasn't a question."

The other four rolled their eyes and face palmed, with the exception of Wally who shot himself with a finger gun, as their two tipsy partners stared at each other and drunkenly flirted the entire way home. Once back at the cave, they wasted no time in trying to get them sobered up. Kaldur went to work getting more coffee heated up while Artemis made them drink the caffeinated drink through a straw. Wally and Robin filled large bowls with ice and water then dunked a now sleeping Superboy and M'gann's heads in the freezing liquid.

"They're still not up!" Wally yelled as he looked at the time. "Red Tornado is supposed to be back by six and we only have ten minutes to get these two lushes up."

"Quiet, man," Robin ordered, feeling the urge to slap the panic out of his friend. "We need a contingency plan, not a freak out."

"Got it, I'll be right back." Taking her leave, Artemis ran to the part of the cave where the rooms were and disappeared.

"Bad news, my friends," Kaldur said as he ran into the common area. "We are out of coffee."

"Can't we just put them in their beds?" Wally suggested. "They do live here you know."

"No good. RT will never buy they fell asleep this early," Robin told him.

Just then, Artemis ran back into the living space with the Monopoly game. "Okay, help me set this up."

"We have a serious problem here and you want to play a game?" Wally asked as he threw his arms up.

"Brilliant, this may work." Robin helped Artemis unpack the box's contents and set up the board.

"Oh, I get it." Kaldur went over to the chair M'gann was sleeping in and pushed it closer to the table. He then managed to slide Conner to the floor and sat him up against the couch.

"Okay," Artemis said as she stepped back from the arranged scene. "Board's out, dice is out, money's out, they each have several properties and hotels. Just need to put out their tokens." She grabbed two pewter tokens and placed them randomly on the board.

"No good," Wally commented. "M'gann always picks the thimble."

"Who cares?" Artemis told him.

"Put her the thimble."

"Wally-"

"**PUT HER THE THIMBLE!**" His four words sounded like one when he shouted them.

With a hateful groan, Artemis replaced one of the tokens with the thimble.

"And Supey likes the racecar."

She then replaced the other piece with the racecar.

"And he's usually in jail."

"Where's my crossbow?!" Artemis yelled just before the Zeta Tube announced Red Tornado's arrival.

The four teens ran into the kitchen as their den mother looked over at the two passed out teen heroes. "Hmm, they always pick those tokens when playing." With that, Red Tornado went to his quarters as the others let out a sigh of relief.

"And that was our first official unofficial mission as the team you all know and love today," Wally concluded as the newer team members laughed at what happened.

Those sitting on the sofa had embarrassed looks on their faces as they let the others enjoy what had happened so many years ago.

"I never said that to Conner," M'gann said as she blushed and tried to stop laughing.

"Yeah, I don't remember that," Conner told Wally who smiled smugly.

"You were too drunk to remember," Artemis told them.

"Who knew you two were lovey-dovey with each other that when you're drunk?" Batgirl asked.

"And yet the very next morning, both woke up without hangovers. Alien DNA at its finest," Nightwing said. "But we have so many lovely pictures and video of what they did, they don't know about."

The two ex's shifted a little in their seats.

"You never got in trouble for that Wing?" Robin asked.

"Not as much as you might think," their leader admitted. "I had to wash the Batmobile, Batplane, and Batboat for a month cause of how high the bill was. Plus I accidently gave the waitress a hundred and fifty dollar tip, gotta watch those zeroes. It was worth it though."

"What about the rest of you guys?" Cassie asked. "Did you ever get caught?"

"We had to clean the mountain of trash without our powers." Conner answered.

"Or gear," added Artemis.

Robin and Batgirl shuddered. "A day without your utility belt," Batgirl said.

"Might as well be naked," finished Robin.

"Hey, is the statue still there sis?" Garfield asked M'gann as he continued to laugh. "You ever go back for that rematch?"

"I don't even remember that," she told him with her head down as she tried not to laugh.

"And when Conner cried when he killed the Superman statue," stated Jaime, "wish I could've seen that."

"I didn't cry," Conner said. "I never cry." He leaned back in his place and lightly brushed M'gann's hand. They caught a glimpse of each other then quickly pulled away like nothing happened.

"Remind me later," Wally told Jamie. "I have the video and so many screen shots of him and the statue. I even have one with the head flying through the air as punches it with his best Rocky Balboa face on."

A beeping occurred shortly after on Nightwing's wrist computer, displaying a live video feed of Red Tornado informing him on reporting back to the Watchtower with Kaldur. "Hey, Kaldur, we need to go to Watchtower, Red Tornado and Aquaman's orders."

"Did they say what for?" the former leader asked.

"No, just that we need to meet with them."

"Wait, hold on just a sec," Batgirl called as she pulled out a digital camera from her utility belt. "How about a shot of the originals? For old time's sake?"

"We do have time," Nightwing said as he looked over to Kaldur who nodded with a grin.

"I'm game," added Wally. "How bout' you babe?"

"You never have to ask, Baywatch." Artemis, still in her Tigress gear, stood and joined the other two.

"How about it, Conner?" M'gann asked. "One more time?" She stood and extended a hand to him with a smile.

Taking her invitation to join the others, Conner accepted her help up. "Just, try not to have a staring contest with the picture afterwards." Both grinned as they made their way over to the others.

Artemis, Wally, Nightwing, Kaldur, M'gann, and Conner, stood in that order with their arms around each other as Batgirl aimed her camera at them.

"Okay guys," Wally said. "This one's for the history books.

The flash of the camera soon followed.

**AN: Tomorrow's the day. That's it, no more Young Justice or Green Lantern (Razor's awesome and I hope he doesn't die). Saturdays as we know it will now be unexciting. Unless, you know, there's another show as cool as this (unlikely) coming up or CN listens to the fans and produces a third season somehow (also unlikely). Anyway here's the list for what I want to see tomorrow in 'End Game" in no specific order:**

**An epic fight and lots of action**

**The League and The Team united and working together to get rid of The Reach**

**Conner smashing some freaking skulls (cause he's my favorite character and hasn't had a lot of screen time)**

**Kid Flash officially passing the torch to Impulse (That would be so cool to see that since it was hinted in 'Summit')**

**A Martian and Semi Kryptonian reuniting**

**A nice jumping off point that gives me ideas for more fics**

**In short, I hope it's like the WWE's The Miz and the episode is AWESOME!**


	18. Chapter 18: After EndGame

18.

**AN: After 'Endgame' I really couldn't come up with anything as the last part of the previous chapter eerily fitting in with the series finale, at least to me. Yes, I went through a Wally withdraw but on the other side, I have some ideas for a sequel to this. So in closing, this is the final chapter to 'Breather'.**

**Batcave, Wayne Manor – Gotham City**

Entering his secret base of operations, Batman wearily took his cowl off, revealing the face of multi-millionaire, Bruce Wayne. Years of late nights, brutal fights, and what some would call paranoia, have taken a toll of him. For a man his age, he had the signs of a man at least five years older. Light scars, broken bones in the cheeks, eye sockets, and nose, were barely noticeable due to the protection his head gear offered, but upon closer inspection, it was evident he was up to more than just living the high life.

His last mission left him close to unarmed as only a handful of Bat-a-rangs, smoke pellets, gas bombs, and empty pouches were all that was left on his utility belt. His cape had a long slice in it and a few pieces of shrapnel were lodged in his torso and right leg, something he received from a desperate Two Face as he went for a last ditch effort to kill him. After a night full of bringing down the rising criminal element from his absence, despite the efforts of Nightwing, Robin, and Batgirl, he was actually looking forward to taking a shower and sleeping in his own bed for the first time in months.

As he placed his cowl on a work bench and took his cape off, a rustle in the suit vault caught his attention. Knowing Alfred was upstairs and no way for any unauthorized persons could enter the cave, he knew only one individual would be inside the vault and shook his head.

Rounding the thick steel door, Bruce wasn't surprised to see his first protégé rummaging around where his extra suits were stored as he packed a large duffle bag with various items. He was clearly in a haste from the look of it as he failed to notice his mentor's presence behind him.

"Planning a long trip, Dick?" Bruce didn't ask so much as stated.

Freezing slightly, a maskless Nightwing looked back and stood slowly. "Didn't know you were there."

"Apparently."

Streams of dry tears were still on Dick's face, which he was hoping wouldn't be noticed in the darkness of the cave. But this was Batman he was looking at, he knew practically everything about what someone was going through or thinking with a single glance.

"I thought you were taking a leave of absence," Bruce said as he paced the perimeter of the room. Behind him were spare Robin costumes, masks, capes, and belts. "Should I really ask what you're up to?"

"You're the bat, you tell me," the younger man responded as he went back to packing.

"Judging by you going through your gear, I would say you were trying to get out of here before my arrival. One of your spare Nightwing suits is missing, which common sense would tell anyone it was already packed up along with a double capacity belt. You went through the winter gear, grabbing an arctic suit, not only for extreme cold, but for high winds and formation of ice since it's the one with a built in body heating system. I would think the weapons vault would be next where you would take enough weapons to bring down all of Gotham's rogues if you so choose. How far off the mark am I?"

Coming to a stop, Dick turned back to face Bruce.

"It doesn't take a genius to figure out you're going back to Antarctica in search for a way to get Kid Flash-"

"His name was Wally!" Dick yelled.

Looking down, Bruce let out a sigh. "I'm sorry. Wally. You know, there are some things that should be let go. Your friend, Wally, he…he was a handful. You and him were two of the closest friends I have ever seen. You were brothers without the blood. And in all truthfulness, I was proud of your relationship with him."

"Proud? Why?"

"Dick, you remember what you told me when you first became Robin? That night you tracked down Tony Zucco by yourself and refused to kill him, made me so incredibly proud. You did the right thing. But what you did later was the first and only time I ever became scared since I became Batman. You said you wanted to be like me."

Dick was surprised, evident by the look on his face. "W…why did that scare you?"

Looking down, Bruce let out a sigh. "I never intended for you to aspire to become what I am. Wally was your saving grace. He kept you a kid when you needed it the most. Sometimes, I thought about how you would have turned out if you had never met him. I trained you to survive. He made sure you lived."

Warm tears threatened to spill out again as Dick listened to what Bruce had to say. Moving from is spot, the man known as the Dark Night did something uncharacteristic of him, something no one outside of Wayne manor would ever see, he pulled Dick into a tight hug and let him get his grief out.

"Richard, you were my first protégé I have had the privilege of witnessing grow from a child to a man who was and has proven capable of changing the world. Where ever you plan to go, whatever you plan to do, however long it takes you, always remember, you're my son, and whatever it is you need, I will be here for you. Whatever I can do to help, know I will."

**Metropolis – Lex Corp**

Upon a nearby skyscraper, Bumblebee, Kid Flash, and Guardian scoped out the larger than life building known as Lex Corp. The group had been staking out the building, waiting for an opportunity to move in and investigate a lead on the Reach's drink being redistributed and what Luther was up to in doing so. For the last few hours, Beta team waited and watched patiently with a plan involving getting to the company database, hacking its system files, and downloading any and all information on the proposed plan.

"Mal, how we doing over there?" Bumblebee asked as she flew up to his shoulder.

"Still the same," the big man responded. "Lex left around ten minutes ago but that woman in the gray business attire is still there. Doesn't she have a home to get to?"

"Maybe he's coming back."

"He took a briefcase with him and headed out of his office, he shouldn't be…wait…there she goes. She's turning off the lights and leaving right now."

"Great, we'll wait until his limo leaves the premises then go in." Looking around, Bumblebee searched for their other two partners. "Where did Kid Flash and Tigress go?"

"What do you mean, they were right…here."

Across the building's roof, the new Kid Flash stood beside Tigress as he held her mask and hair. The woman had suddenly felt ill and quickly made her way behind an air vent to throw up with the speedster close behind.

"How are you feeling now?" Kid Flash asked.

"Nugh, still feel…kinda sick. Leave it to me to catch the flu before a mission like this, huh?" Wiping her mouth with her sleeve, Artemis grabbed her mask and once again became Tigress. "Just need to find a way to ease my stomach is all when this is over."

"Are you sure you can do this? I mean, if you're sick then maybe you should hold back while me and the others go in and get what we need."

"No, I'm fine, really. I just needed a minute there."

Setting a hand on her shoulder, Kid Flash kept her from hurrying off. "If this is about Wally-"

"No, I…I grieved and need to move on. We've got a mission to do and another world to save." She unholstered one of her crossbows and attached a grappling device to it. "Time to move out."

"Ready to go?" Guardian asked as he noticed the two joining him.

"Yeah, ready as we'll ever be," Tigress answered while cocking back the grapple mechanism to provide the loaded bolt an extra amount of force.

"We're clear," Bumblebee's voice came from their com units. "Rooftop is deserted with no signs of security. Could be a trap or Lex's way of saying he's on to us but now's a good as time as any."

"Roger that, Bee," Guardian radioed. KF and Tigress are on their wa-"

"Already here, big guy." Even though Guardian or Tigress couldn't see his face, they knew Kid Flash was smiling on the other end.

"He's getting to be as bad as Nightwing," Guardian said as Tigress fired her grapple bolt.

"Not possible," the blonde said as she readied herself to zip line to the building. "Nightwing cackled." She then took off to meet up with the others.

As she shot over to the other side, the wind whipped through her hair and swarmed her face. It felt so good and had her feeling free and untouchable, something she hadn't felt since Wally was with her in Paris as they took down one of The Reach's world ending machines. Of course that was when she was still in his arms.

Landing on the rooftop, Tigress holstered her cross bow and snuck to the marked air vent where Kid Flash vibrated the cover off. It was their way in and out with Bumblebee already heading inside. The new speedster was second and Tigress herself prepared to climb in after them, but she couldn't help stopping and looking at the moon shining overhead.

Letting out a sigh, she closed her eyes for a moment then looked back up. "This one's for you, Wally." She then climbed in the vent to carry out the mission at hand.

**Blüdhaven – Bioship Hanger**

"Okay, sis, Ready to go." Garfield had just finished strapping himself in his seat as the large cargo elevator before the craft rose to seal off the warehouse from the underground hanger.

"Supplies are loaded and ready," Conner said as he entered the cockpit area and took a seat at the front of the ship just as the hanger they were in flooded with water as the harbor bay doors opened.

"Alright guys," M'gann said from her usual spot in the pilot's chair. "We'll be airborne shortly and arriving on Mars in a few hours, so make yourselves comfortable."

"Uh, hours?" Garfield asked. "Like, beyond sixty minutes? As in sixty minutes times how much exactly?"

"Relax, Gar. It's only about twenty one hours at top speed, which is much faster than what I can travel safely on Earth with its gravity."

"Twenty one hours?" Garfield gasped. "But what if I run out of batteries for my Gameboy?"

"Well, I-"

Pointing a finger at his blood sister, Garfield narrowed an eye while widening another as he made a faux threatening face. "You better be ready for me to ask 'Are we there yet' over and over if that happens."

"Kid's good," Conner said as he sat down with his arms crossed.

"Have you been to Mars before?" Garfield asked him.

"A few times. It's not bad, but M'gann's family still gives me problems."

"What, they don't like you?"

"Oh they like me, it's just hard to tell them apart when they're in their true Martian forms."

"Tell you what," M'gann said to the young shape shifter, "when we get past the atmosphere, how would you like to learn to pilot the ship?"

Garfield's eyes shot open at the proposition with a large smile forming on his face. "Really? Cool!"

After a short time, M'gann had moved from the pilot chair and had Garfield take control. He had caught on pretty quick, something he attributed to playing video games, and was soon piloting the ship by himself. His right hand controlled the direction and speed of the vehicle while his left controlled the navigation system and weapons, which were made non-operational by its Martian owner. It had been sometime since Conner had gotten up to get something to drink from the back but hadn't come back for the last few minutes.

"You're doing good, Gar," M'gann told him. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna go check on what Conner's doing that's taking him so long."

Usually the youth would make a joke about the two being alone together but he was just too enthralled with piloting the ship that he didn't notice M'gann had left his side, making sure the ship would be on auto pilot should he leave the controls for any reason. His jaw was hanging open as he played out the ending to Star Wars in his mind.

"Conner?" M'gann called as she entered the cargo hold.

Standing with his back to the front of the ship, Conner had his head down as he leaned against the side wall with his arm supporting him.

"Conner? Is something wrong?"

He let out a sigh as he spoke then turned to her and held out his hand. "Wall…Wally's goggles."

Slowly stepping forward, M'gann reached out and took hold of their fallen friend's head accessory. "I…I didn't know these were back here. Where did you find them?"

"Behind the cooler. They must have slid out after Garfield's barrel roll earlier."

Tears began to form in the Martian girl's eyes as she looked the goggles over. "I can still hear him call me 'Megalicious'. I still remember when he first called me that."

"Know what I did when I first met him? I tried to light him on fire with heat vision. I'm glad I didn't have it."

Letting out something between a laugh and a sob, M'gann reached out for Conner and the two hugged tightly as they remembered their friend. He kissed her forehead and resumed holding her when a few moments later, Garfield found them in the tight embrace and was spotted by the pair. One look at the goggles in M'gann's hand told him enough and he too joined in on the hug.

The three held each other tightly for some time as they continued heading to Mars.

**Atlantic Ocean – Seventy Five Kilometers from Antarctica**

Inside the cockpit of the Batplane, a maskless Nightwing piloted the areal machine to the last spot he saw his friend. He was already in his extreme temperature gear, white body suit with a head covering, as he prepared to investigate where The Reach's infernal machine was. Although he knew there was no sign of his heroic friend left, he had to go back and give the spot one last thorough look over.

Looking at a picture of the original team taped to the dashboard, Dick swallowed a lump in his throat then looked out ahead of him as the frozen continent came into view.

**AN: And so this story comes to a close. I feel like coming up with my own version of a third season after this now, as there are many possible paths to take if one were made, especially if Wally should be brought back. Of course if I do, it may focus on several key characters as I don't really know many of the newbies too well. The ideas are forming right now.**


	19. Author's Note

**AN: Just want to let everyone who followed this story or stopped by know that I'm posting a sequel, which will be posted in the next five minutes since I got so many reviews in support of this one. Hope you all enjoy.**


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